Tata Motors is looking to commence operations at the Gujarat-based manufacturing plant it acquired from Ford, over the next 12-18 months to scale up its production capacity, according to its head of the passenger vehicle business.

The auto maker earlier this month completed the acquisition of Ford India’s manufacturing plant at Sanand through a subsidiary. In August last year, the company had announced that its arm Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd (TPEML) would acquire Ford India Pvt Ltd’s (FIPL) Sanand plant in Gujarat for Rs 726 crore.

Tata Motors had earlier noted that with its manufacturing capacity nearing saturation, the acquisition is timely and a win-win for all stakeholders. The Sanand plant has a manufacturing capacity of 3 lakh units per annum, which is scalable to 4.2 lakh units per annum.

TPEML is in the process of making necessary investments to reconfigure the plant to adapt to the Mumbai-based auto maker’s existing and future vehicle platforms. The unit is adjacent to the existing manufacturing facility of Tata Motors at Sanand.

In an analyst call, Tata Motors managing director — passenger vehicle and electric vehicles — Shailesh Chandra said the company also has the ability to debottleneck capacities at its two existing facilities at Pune and Sanand by an additional 10-15 per cent.

“We are targeting to operationalise the Ford plant in 12 to 18 months,” he noted when asked about the production capacity at the company’s disposal.

Steel output up

India’s crude steel Ford plant production rose 5.80 per cent to 124.45 million tonne (mt) in 2022, according to SteelMint.

The country had produced 117.63mt crude steel in 2021, the market research firm said.

The production of finished steel was at 110.03mt, up from over 104.54mt a year ago, SteelMint said in its latest report on the industry.

The consumption of finished steel rose to 106.48mt, as against 98.39mt in 2021, a year-on-year rise of 8 per cent.

SteelMint attributed the increase in output and consumption to “continuous focus of the government on the infrastructure sector”.

According to the report, the exports in 2022 have registered a fall of 44 per cent at 10.37mt over the previous year, while the imports were up 21 per cent at 4.77mt in the year ended December 31.