Yamaha Motor and Mitsui have inked an agreement to jointly invest in the new motorcycle manufacturing company, India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM) established by Yamaha in October 2007. Mitsui’s investment will take the form of an allocation of new stock shares to a third party issued by IYM for the equivalent of 30 per cent of the company’s capitalization. IYM will thus increase its total capital to a planned 5.6 billion Rupees (approx. 16 billion Yen) and utilise the same factory and office facilities used by its predecessor, Yamaha Motor India Private Limited (YMI), to take over Yamaha Motor India’s manufacturing and business operations beginning from April 2008. 

YMC started manufacturing of motorcycles in India by establishing a joint venture company with local partner Escorts in 1996. In 2001, YMI became a 100per cent owned subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Corporation of Japan. Then in 2005, a separate sales company, Yamaha Motor India Sales Private Limited, was established, after which the Yamaha motorcycle business in India was conducted by two companies specializing in manufacturing and marketing respectively.

TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, has partnered Maus S.p.A of Italy for manufacturing wide range of Vertical Turning Centres for Indian and global markets. TAL has entered into an agreement with Maus to use the designs and get the technological know-how from Maus for a range of products. 

Speaking on the occasion, Atam P Arya, Managing Director, TAL, said, “TAL has an established reputation in state-of-the-art precision engineering for a wide range of machine tool products and manufacturing solutions. The cooperation with MAUS would extend the coverage to the vertical turning solutions as well, for various markets and applications”. 

Roberto Sammartin, COO, MAUS S.p.A, added: “It is a great satisfaction of seeing the machine operative in a short span of time, from signing the agreement with TAL. This is a result of a great human understanding between TAL and MAUS on technical as well as interpersonal relationship of the two companies across all levels of operation. This would open up new horizon and would boost all of us for newer heights.”

Further to the cut in excise duty, announced in the Union Budget, heavy vehicles major, Ashok Leyland has announced that it would pass on the benefit of the reduction to customers. The company has announced new prices for buses and trucks, effective from 5 March 2008. On the sales front, the company registered domestic sale of 7,501 vehicles for the month of February 08. Exports stood at 677 vehicles for the said period. Total vehicle sales was 72,611 nos in Apr-Feb’08, a slight slump as compared to 74,657 vehicles sold in Apr-Feb’07, according to a press release from the company.

Tata Motors has put the Nano on display at the Geneva Motor Show. In addition to the Nano, Tata displayed the new Indica, new Safari and the Xenon at the Show. Speaking at Show, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors said, “1998, when we displayed the Indica at Geneva, marked our entry into passenger cars. The last decade has been a period of significant development in Tata Motors’ capabilities. The display of the Nano, which is a first for the global automobile industry, and the new generation Indica signifies this in-house progression.”

Magna Electronics, an operating unit of Magna International has acquired Allied Transportation Technology, which produces ultrasonic sensing systems used for parking assistance and back-up object detection. The acquisition is expected to enable Magna Electronics to tap future growth opportunities in Asia, particularly India as they continue to establish themselves in the country. Allied Transportation Technology is located in Troy, Michigan.