Bosch India imports pumps to meet rising demand

JAIPUR: Sharp surge in the automobile market has forced Bosch India���s Jaipur facility to import distributor pumps to meet the rising demand of the heavy duty commercial vehicle market in India. According to sources, the company is importing 25% of its total distributor pumps supply from Curitiba in Brazil and Feurbach in Germany.

The company has also taken back all the 250 employees it had laid off when the recession gripped the industry in November last year. ���We are gearing up to meet the industry demand. The market is now looking up beating the recession blues. We receive a monthly demand of around 50,000 distributor pumps per month.

As we are not running with full capacity, we have to import these pumps,��� he said. The company enjoys monopoly in the distributor pumps for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. It has,so far, has invested, Rs 300 crore in its 2000-sq metres-Jaipur facility including Rs 40-crore on the new hangar.

The slated introduction of Euro IV norms from April 2010, however, has impacted the demand of distributor pumps. ���Every product line has a lifecycle and it reaches a plateau at some stage and then decline starts. The demand for distributor pump has been declining since 2007 as the industry is looking at new products, which can meet the Euro IV vehicular emission norms.

The company will need to innovate and roll out new products from Jaipur plant, which is dedicated to manufacturing of distributor pumps,��� he said. The Jaipur plant contributes 20% to the total turnover of the company.