Chinese bearing major ZWZ to set up plant in India

ZWZ Bearings, China’s largest bearing maker, on Thursday announced its plans to set up a plant in India.

The unit will come up in 3-5 years, said Nishant Vora, general manager & director, ZWZ Bearings India (ZWZIN).

“We are just about to begin the feasibility study and we have not decided the location for the plant. Till the plant is up, we will import from China,” he said.

ZWZ, a state-owned listed entity, has been importing bearings to India for 15 years and last year its imports were worth `50 crore.
Though Vora did not share ZWZIN’s investment plans, he said it costs $80-100 million to set up a unit.

The global bearing market is tipped to be worth over $50 billion and India, with quite a large number of unorganised players, accounts for $2 billion. Nearly half of the country’s requirement is imported.

Bearing is a friction and wear-reducing machine component that aligns, guides and supports moving parts.

In India, whose bearing industry is seeing a 15% annual growth, ZWZ will take on, among others, world leader AB SKF of Sweden, which has a 30% share here, Germany’s FAG Bearings, NTN Corporation and Koyo Bearing, both from Japan.

B L Dar, vice-president, business development, ZWZIN, said the company is looking at a topline of `100 crore in three years and Rs500 crore in five.

ZWZ, which claims to account for 20% of the bearing market in China and is the seventh biggest global bearing company, turned over $1 billion last year and hopes to take it to $5 billion by 2015.

The firm, which has 22 manufacturing bases worldwide, makes 15,000 kinds of bearings for automobiles, ships, locomotives, nuclear devices, wind power & military equipment and for various industrial sectors.  “In India our initial focus will be on steel, power, cement, mining and oil & gas,” Vora said, adding that the company is conducting trials with a leading Indian wind turbine company. 

ZWZ’s plans for India are among the $16 billion worth of bilateral deals signed as part of premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to the country.