Hydro S

New Delhi, Jan 14 (UNI) Expansion plans of global and domestic auto players General Motors, M&M, Volkswagen and the re-entry of Fiat has driven Hydro S&S Industries, a vendor of specialised compounds for automotive plastics, to set up a new facility at Pune.

''With the expansion of General Motors, Mahindra&Mahindra and the re-entry of Fiat and the new project of Volkswagen in Pune, we are proceeding with creating a third facility in the Pune belt to handle the increasing requirements of these OEMs,'' a company spokesman said.

He declined to give investment details of the new plant.

This facility, initially, will have annual capacity of 6,000 million tonnes (MTs) with plans to enhance the same dovetailed with the capacity increase of the OEMs, he said adding that the anufacturing facility will become operational by March 2008.

The company provides its services and products to global auto majors like Hyundai and General Motors, as well as domestic giants like Tata Motors.

''The creation of this facility will allow Hydro S&S to provide enhanced levels of delivery performance and application support to our moulders and OEMs apart from ensuring locational and logistical benefits,'' he added.

These compounds also find application in the appliance and furniture segments.

Automotive applications include bumpers, instrument panels, pillars and side trims and other interior and exterior plastics.

The product range also includes thermoplastic elastomers and pultruded profiles.

The company currently has two compounding facilities at Pudukottai (near Trichy) and Puducherry with a processing capability of about 18,000 MTs per annum.

With both plants equipped with QS 9000 and TS 16949 certification, sales to the auto sector constitute more than 85 per cent of its output with its materials being used in all the high volume cars manufactured by these auto majors.

UNI