The Hindu Business Line : Tata Cummins to increase B series engine capacity

TATA Cummins, the 50:50 joint venture between Tata Motors and Cummins Inc of the US, is poised to increase capacities of its B series engines, as the rapid growth in infrastructure has fuelled a significant increase in the offtake of the engines.

The joint venture company currently manufactures 60,000 units of the B series engines at its Jamshedpur facilities and 90 per cent of the production is consumed by the Tata Group itself with the remaining used for various applications, including gensets, construction machinery and marine applications.

According to sources, the joint venture company, spurred by the growth in the auto sector and the explosion in infrastructure building, is now actively looking at supplying the engines to other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It is close to finalising a tie-up with at least one new entrant foraying into the medium and heavy commercial vehicle business.

"In addition to this, a lot of existing players in the commercial vehicle business are moving to heavier haulage vehicles, which is an evolving business opportunity for the company," the sources said.

The joint venture makes low emission diesel engines and base engines in the 105-235 hp range and the engines are currently used on 25 different vehicles in the the 12-40 tonnes gross vehicle weight segments.

The engines are typically used in buses, trucks, trailers, car carriers and tippers, and demand for all the categories is currently peaking.The Cummins B series is also finding application in the new generation luxury coach business where it is already being fitted in the Lexia luxury coaches from Sutlej Motors. The sources said the company is currently in touch with a host of other luxury bus manufacturers for the B and C series engines. The country's luxury bus business is seeing increased activity with Lexia and Ashok Leyland announcing plans in this segment. The Chief Executive Officer (Diesel Sales and Services) of Cummins, Mr Sundar Parthasarathy, when contacted, said the current capacities at Jamshedpur for the B series were completely used up, as demand has peaked, but declined to comment on any capacity expansion. The company sources, however, said a proposal for capacity expansion for the engine is currently awaiting clearance from the company board.