India’s industry sector continues its strong showing with a healthy PMI of 54 and GDP growth likely at a robust 8.9%. Automotive, EV, and defense shine as they attract investment and opportunities. For more industry intel and other tidbits, read on.
India’s manufacturing activities continue to expand despite minimal correction as the Purchasing Managers’ Index for March stood at 54 from 54.9 in February 2022.
Output and new orders grew at accelerated rates, supported by favorable demand conditions. The overall GDP growth for the fiscal year (April 2021 to March 2022) is likely to be around 8.9%.
India’s defense equipment sector offers significant, new opportunities. The focus is to curtail imports of defense equipment by encouraging both state-owned and private entities to manufacture equipment indigenously for both Indian defense needs as well as for export to other countries; Over 550 items have been identified, along with 18 major platforms, such as helicopters and drones. For 2022, 68% of total defense outlay (approximately $12 billion) would be spent in procuring the defense equipment from indigenous manufacturers.
As per the recent report released by Moody’s Investors Service, India is going to witness a car sales growth of over 10% in 2022, the strongest amongst the Asia-Pacific market segment.
The automotive Production-Linked Incentives (PLI) program for vehicle and auto components businesses attracted over 76% higher investment than the objective of around $5.56 billion. Auto and auto component makers have proposed investing over $9.79 billion in the country over the next five years: 20 automakers are planning to invest $5.89 billion, and 75 auto component manufacturers would invest $3.9 billion in the country.
The EV segment registered an overall sales growth of 162% compared to the sales numbers from the previous year, with two-wheeler sales up 423%, three-wheeler sales up 75%, cars sales up 238%, and bus sales up 1,250%. As of March 13, India had 1,095,746 electric vehicles registered and 1,742 operational charging stations. There is a plan to install over 48,000 electric car chargers, with an investment of $1.85 billion over the next three to four years.
MG Motors will invest around $550 million to put up their second manufacturing plant.
Suzuki Motors is planning to invest $1.3 billion to enhance their EV manufacturing capacity at their Gujarat-based plant and is also setting up a new battery manufacturing plant in Gujarat.
U.S.-based Triton Electric Vehicle is investing around $1.3 billion to set up a commercial EV manufacturing plant in Bhuj, Gujarat.
Tata Motors is likely to acquire Ford’s manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat. Tata is also planning to invest around $300 million to manufacture 200,000 EVs by 2026 at the facility.
U.S.-based Biliti Electric is planning to invest around $150 million to set up a three-wheeler factory in Telangana. The factory will have a production capacity of 240,000 EVs per annum.
EV startup Simple Energy signed an agreement with U.S.-based C4V, a lithium-ion battery technology company, to set up a lithium-ion cell manufacturing ecosystem in India.
Samsung is investing $200 million to set up a new compressor plant for refrigerators at Sriperumbudur, near Chennai.
