Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE) plans to invest Rs 180 crore to expand capacity in this fiscal.
The Rs 8,000-crore company, part of the Chennai-based Amalgamations group, has four plants in India with a capacity to produce over 1.8 lakh tractors a year. It also has a 15,000-unit facility in Turkey. It is now setting up a new facility in Madurai with an investment of Rs 100 crore. This plant will produce 60,000 units. Thus, by the end of the current year, the company's total capacity in India will be 2.5 lakh units.
It also proposes a Rs 40-crore facility to produce other harvest implements. This facility will, most probably, be located in Chennai. Besides, it plans to invest Rs 40 crore in some backward integration projects including a painting unit in Turkey.
Addressing a press conference here today, Ms Mallika Srinivasan, Chairperson, said that “structural changes in the farm sector,” such as shortage of labour and easy access to credit, would lead to more mechanisation.
Last fiscal, the company's sales grew by 27 per cent to 1.48 lakh tractors from 1.17 lakh in 2010-11. In revenue terms, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 8,020 crore against Rs 6,150 crore in 2010-11. Its export business, too, grew by 28 per cent to 20,396 completely built units (Rs 1,200 crore).
The company has invested close to Rs 200 crore last year in product development, capacity expansion and vendor development programmes, said Mr R.C. Banka, President.