Date:19/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/09/19/stories/2005091900820500.htm

Back Aluminium casters' body to set up more centres

G. Gurumurthy

Coimbatore , Sept. 18

THE Pune-based Aluminium Casters' Association (Alucast), a body of the aluminium dye-casting industry, is planning to open centres in areas having foundry clusters.

Alucast will also launch a three-month certificate course on dye-casting at its headquarters in December to upgrade the skills of supervisory cadres, said the Secretary of Alucast, Mr R.T. Kulkarni. He was here at the inauguration of Alucast's Coimbatore chapter.

Mr Kulkarni told Business Line that with several global players seeking to invest in India's foundry industry, especially in aluminium casting, there is a need to update technical skills in areas such as product development and exports.

Aluminium casting exports from India are poised to grow at 35 per cent and domestic consumption is also expected to go up. Consequently, Alucast has tried to give the desired impetus to this sector so that it can take advantage of the technical competency and the vast labour pool. Alucast recently opened Bangalore and Chennai chapters and it has proposed to open two more centres in Delhi and Ahmedabad next month.

Alucast will host the Asia-Pacific Aluminium conference during November 2-5, 2006 in Goa. Twenty countries are likely to participate and the conference's theme will be `emerging technologies and strategies.'