Timken India Manufacturing (a division of The Timken Company, USA) formally launched early production at its new $26 million bearing manufacturing plant in India.
Built in the Mahindra World City -- a special industrial park in the Chennai special economic zone -- plans for the greenfield factory were announced in late 2006.
In September 2007, Timken indicated the plant would soon begin early stage production, worker training, and related shakedown activities.
This new facility is dedicated to manufacturing larger sizes of tapered roller bearings, with an export orientation.
As it comes online, the plant will be able to produce more than 300,000 bearings per year, eventually ramping up to produce 420,000 per year by mid-2009.
In full production, Timken Chennai will employ more than 200 workers.
Phase I is scheduled to come fully online by October 2008.
Although the majority of Chennai's output will be exported, Timken will also use the plant's output to leverage more business in India's truck and industrial markets.
Timken President and CEO, Jim Griffith, was in attendance, and said: "The opening of our Chennai facility helps us achieve our core strategic objective of accelerating growth in Asia and in industrial markets. Global demand for industrial products is at historic levels, and this additional capacity will allow us to meet the needs of our customers with products that meet Timken's global standards for quality, performance, and value. The success of our other Indian operations gave us the confidence to make this investment in the company's future right here in Chennai."
Other News:
Timken Begins Bearing Production in Chennai
New Product Catalog for Voith Universal Joint Shafts(Pic)
Bearing Failure Ignites Recycling Center Fire
Precision RPM Brings Gamet Bearings to North America
Subaru Suspends 2.5 Turbo Sales
Steelmaker ArcelorMittal Acquires Canadian Metals Recycler Bakermet
Schaeffler Group Industrial – Technical Expertise and Full Service from a Single Source
RotoPrecision Celebrates 50 Years in Motion