Auto component manufacturers need to get competitive in order to leverage the full potential of a market that is bound to register healthy growth over the next 20 years, a spokesperson at one of India’s leading filter manufacturers said in an interaction with APF’s Manish Pant.
“Automobile manufacturers are getting aggressive. They are also focusing on components, which is giving direct competition to auto component manufacturers. So, we need to become efficient, productive and effective. Gone are the days of very high margins,” surmised Pawan Sharma, Vice President Marketing, Elofic Industries Ltd.
In the changing landscape, the role of distributors would become even more important. Component makers would need to enhance their outreach with them through technology to increase supplies as well as improve transparency, he added.
Sharma opined that India was no longer a localised but a large global marketplace for automobiles. Due to the presence of all the leading automobile brands here the growth potential for component makers was tremendous. He especially saw a huge opportunity in exports.
Sharma predicted that as the industry matured further it would get even more structured and people not keeping up with the changes would vanish.
Elofic has six modern manufacturing facilities in the states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu from where it supplies oil filters, fuel filters, hydraulic filters, coolants and lubricant and grease products to a clientele that also includes several Fortune 1000 companies.
The company offers a wide range of Bharat Stage (BS)-VI compliant filters for automobiles. Sharma also saw an opportunity in the encouragement being given by the government to the adoption of electric vehicles (EV)s.
“People think that as EVs don’t have filters there is a threat to filter manufacturers. But this is an opportunity for us. Globally, EVs have a 15-16 per cent market share even in the developed economies. So, for at least the next two decades the industry would be growing at a CAGR of 14-15 per cent, with ample scope available to all component manufacturers,” he said. Elcofic already supplies cabin filters to some of the leading makers of EVs.
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