New Delhi, June 30: The Tatas are planning to join hands with its car distributor in Bangladesh Nitol Motors for a truck plant at Kishoregunj near Dhaka. The facility will manufacture 30,000-40,000 Ace pick-ups a year.
Matlub Ahmed, chairman of Nitol Niloy Group, that owns Nitol Motors, said, What we are looking at is a core plant at Kishoregunj near Dhaka around which an ancillary industry will grow up.
Only those (motor) parts which are too complicated to be manufactured in Bangladesh at this point will be imported, he said.
Analysts said such a manufacturing plant would cost about Rs 1,000 crore.
Ahmed told The Telegraph the company was looking to sell about 12,000 trucks in Bangladesh.
The rest will be exported to India, Myanmar and countries where engineering goods from Bangladesh have duty-free access such as Turkey and other European nations.
Nitol has a joint venture with the Tatas that assembles vehicles of the Indian company at Jessore.
The proposed Kishoregunj plant will be a large set-up with a supporting auto ancillary hub capable of exporting vehicles to India.
Ahmed, who is now in India, will be visiting Pune, where Tata Motors has a plant. Nitol Motors sells about 700-800 Ace trucks a month in Bangladesh.
The details of the joint venture are not yet clear. Sources indicated that the Tatas would possibly settle for a 50:50 joint venture with Nitol.
Ahmed said the Bangladesh government was keen on this project as it would be able to export trucks and spares to India, Helping to reduce the trade deficit between the two neighbours.
Nitol and Tata Motors are also studying the possibility of assembling Nanos in Bangladesh, but this is not on the immediate radar.
Earlier, Tata International had signed a deal with Nitol in April to make cycles for the global market.
Four years back, the Tata group had pulled out of a proposed Rs 10,000-crore venture in Bangladesh to set up a steel mill, a fertiliser factory and a power plant.
Since then the Tatas along with other corporate entities have shown interest in the small but fast growing market of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, which grew at a 6.2 per cent rate last year, has a per capita income of $750 and exports goods worth $15.91 billion annually, mostly to the US, European Union and Japan.
Indias annual exports to Bangladesh are valued at $3.375 billion, while it imports goods worth a mere $358 million.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Business | Tata truck plant near Dhaka
Matlub Ahmed, chairman of Nitol Niloy Group, that owns Nitol Motors, said, What we are looking at is a core plant at Kishoregunj near Dhaka around which an ancillary industry will grow up.
Only those (motor) parts which are too complicated to be manufactured in Bangladesh at this point will be imported, he said.
Analysts said such a manufacturing plant would cost about Rs 1,000 crore.
Ahmed told The Telegraph the company was looking to sell about 12,000 trucks in Bangladesh.
The rest will be exported to India, Myanmar and countries where engineering goods from Bangladesh have duty-free access such as Turkey and other European nations.
Nitol has a joint venture with the Tatas that assembles vehicles of the Indian company at Jessore.
The proposed Kishoregunj plant will be a large set-up with a supporting auto ancillary hub capable of exporting vehicles to India.
Ahmed, who is now in India, will be visiting Pune, where Tata Motors has a plant. Nitol Motors sells about 700-800 Ace trucks a month in Bangladesh.
The details of the joint venture are not yet clear. Sources indicated that the Tatas would possibly settle for a 50:50 joint venture with Nitol.
Ahmed said the Bangladesh government was keen on this project as it would be able to export trucks and spares to India, Helping to reduce the trade deficit between the two neighbours.
Nitol and Tata Motors are also studying the possibility of assembling Nanos in Bangladesh, but this is not on the immediate radar.
Earlier, Tata International had signed a deal with Nitol in April to make cycles for the global market.
Four years back, the Tata group had pulled out of a proposed Rs 10,000-crore venture in Bangladesh to set up a steel mill, a fertiliser factory and a power plant.
Since then the Tatas along with other corporate entities have shown interest in the small but fast growing market of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh, which grew at a 6.2 per cent rate last year, has a per capita income of $750 and exports goods worth $15.91 billion annually, mostly to the US, European Union and Japan.
Indias annual exports to Bangladesh are valued at $3.375 billion, while it imports goods worth a mere $358 million.
The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Business | Tata truck plant near Dhaka