By Dhwani Pandya
MUMBAI (Reuters) -Godrej Aerospace is in talks to build aircraft parts for suppliers to Airbus and Boeing as airlines place record jet orders, a top executive at the Indian company said.
Air India and IndiGo between them have nearly 1,000 new planes on order, said Maneck Behramkamdin, associate vice president and business head at Godrej Aerospace, which means 2,000-2,500 engines would at some point need maintenance.
“With so many aircraft coming into India, Airbus and Boeing need to augment their supply chain. Tier two suppliers of Airbus and Boeing are now looking at India … we are in talks with them,” Behramkamdin told Reuters.
There are a lot of opportunities in supplying for the structure of the aircraft and there are also large titanium requirements, he said, adding there will also be demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul of aircraft parts.
Godrej Aerospace already exports some key components to engine makers General Electric (GE) and Rolls-Royce, Behramkamdin said after a media tour of its plant in Mumbai.
The company expects its civil aviation business to clock revenues of 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in the current fiscal year, making up 35% of Godrej’s total revenues, he said in an interview, adding that he expects this to grow to 50% next year.
India has been pushing for indigenous manufacturing as well as local sourcing of components for aerospace and defence, and companies like Airbus and Boeing have recently committed to more local manufacturing and investment.
Godrej Aerospace will also pitch to manufacture modules of GE 414 engines and become part of the supply chain for the work horses that will power the next generation of Indian fighter jets.
Under a deal announced during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the U.S. last month, the engines will be made jointly by GE and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
Godrej Aerospace said separately in a statement it is planning to invest 2.5 billion rupees ($30 million) to build a new facility in Khalapur in Maharashtra for advanced manufacturing and assembly and integration facilities.
(Reporting by Dhwani Pandya in Mumbai; Writing by Aditi Shah and Sethuraman NR; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Alexander Smith)
