JSW Paints plans venture into automotive coating

After turning profitable at operational level, JSW Paints plans to explore fresh opportunity in the booming automotive sector by gaining fresh confidence from the Group’s new venture into the sector.

Earlier, Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Group announced a foray into automobile segment in joint venture MG Motors, which is owned by the Chinese company SIAC Motor.

JSW had picked up 35 per cent in the joint venture company JSW MG Motors India with Indian financial institutions and domestic MG Motor dealers holding 8 per cent and 3 per cent besides employees owning 5 per cent. The fresh stake holding will result in a capital infusion of ₹5,000 crore.

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AS Sundaresan, Joint Managing Director and CEO, JSW Paints told businessline that the company is currently not into automotive coating but will be entering into it soon and it will not be restricted to cater the group’s venture but look to deal with the entire automotive sector.

Even in the coating business, the focus was on the entire industry and to develop a product for the whole industrial segment. In coil coating, JSW Paints was the first Indian company to develop a technology in India and scaled it up, he said.

All other companies which supply coil coating have technology from multinational to tap into Indian market, he said.

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In the automotive coating business, JSW will look to develop the technology inhouse but the option of partnership will be kept open if it leads to faster roll-out and garnering higher market share, said Sundaresan.

Some of the key players in India automotive paints and coatings include Akzo Nobel NV, Berger Paints India, Kansai Nerolac Paints, Nippon Paint (India) and PPG Asian Paints.

The India Automotive Paints and Coatings Market is expected to grow from $608 million in 2023 to $911 million by 2028, at a CAGR of 8 per cent during the forecast period, as per industry estimate.

• Also read: JSW Paints to clock ₹2,000 cr turnover this fiscal

With the fresh capital infusion JSW MG Motors plans to increase production capacity to 3 lakh vehicles per annum from 1 lakh. The company will launch Cyberster EV, the premium passenger vehicle, early next year in India.

MG Motor currently sells SUVs under the Hector, Gloster, and Astor brands and the ZS EV and Comet EV models of electric vehicles. It has just over one per cent market share in the country and has sold two lakh cars in India.