Date:18/11/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/11/18/stories/2005111802070200.htm

Back `Second half will be better for vehicle biz'

THE Vice-Chairman & MD at M&M, Mr Anand Mahindra, says that the second half of the year will be much better for the entire vehicle business.

Mr Deepak Kapur of International Truck & Engine Corporation says he is bullish on opportunities in India.

The following are the excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Mr Anand Mahindra and Mr Deepak Kapur.

Could you throw more light on future joint ventures?

Mr Kapur:No further joint ventures are planned, but this joint venture could be used for much more than what we are initially thinking. Initially, we had thought of setting up manufacturing in India, but to get under this growing market and be prosperous, we need to provide sourcing for our global operations and engineering services at lower costs.

Do you have any non-competing agreement with Man International for the Indian market?

Mr Kapur: We have no formal non-competing agreement of this nature with Man. The nature of this day and age is of globalisation and relationships across the globe. In some markets we may be allies and in others, we may be competitors with the same company, and in this case we are allied with Man for engine technology, but we will compete with them in Asia.

Would you look at shifting any of your production given that this market enjoys the cost advantage compared to some of the North American markets?

Mr Kapur: On the purchasing front we surely would. We do intend to source a significant amount of component entry in this part of the world and particularly in India. For manufacturing, we will have to see if there are synergistic opportunities as well as pragmatic choices to move manufacturing here.

This year what kind of LCV volumes can we expect from Mahindra?

Mr Mahindra: We think that the second half of this year will be much better than the first half for the entire vehicle business, and that includes passenger cars, UVs as well as CVs. We are thinking of revising our targets but I cannot give any specific targets right now.

What is International's global target for trucks this year?

Mr Kapur: For FY06 we would expect to be somewhere between 1,50,000-1,75,000.