India's Harita Fehrer to expand PU seat production

Mumbai — Indo-German joint venture Harita Fehrer is opening a new automotive seating plant in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan to supply northern India's OEMs.

'We are focusing on the automobile industry and Bhiwadi will manufacture two-wheeler seat assemblies to meet the requirements of new customers such as Suzuki Motorcycles and Scooters and Okinawa Electric. It will also supply existing customers like Yamaha and United Motors,' said Krishna Kumar. Kumar is assistant manager, sales and marketing, Harita Fehrer.

Kumar was speaking at the recently concluded IPUA,  PU Innovation Day in Mumbai.

Bhiwadi is a city in Alwar district of Rajasthan state, known as an industrial hub and is part of the National Capital Region.

Commenting on the growth of PU applications in the Indian automobile industry, Kumar said, 'Its penetration is growing in the automotive sector. The JV has presence in all the three range of PU, flexible, semi-flexible and rigid.

Harita Seating Systems and F.S Fehrer Automotive, Germany formed the JV in 2010.. It makes polyurethane foam pads and seats for two- and three-wheelers. Other products include: composites, micro cellular foam, long fibre injection-based parts and interior modules.

The Indian partner holds 51% of the JV which operates four sites at Hosur, Chennai, Pune and Mysuru. The Mysuru plant started operations in April 2017.

This year will also see facilities at Hosur expand. This will help the site meet demand from TVS Motor Company and Harita Seating Systems, he said.

'Currently, the plants have 17 foam lines with capacity to produce 6,800 car sets, 15,000 two-wheeler seats & 600 three- wheeler seat assemblies per day. When Bhiwadi opens it will add the 18th foam line, Kumar said.

Harita Fehrer has recently won orders for head and arm rests to a new model of Renault Nissan through Lear. The company has won a similar order for these parts for Hyundai Verna through Yongsan. Additionally, it has supplied foam pads for Hyundai Verna through Dymos. It was nominated as a direct supplier to BMW in the last year.

'Almost 97% of our production caters the Indian auto industry. Around 3% is exported to clients including BMW, EVO Bus both in Germany and Loncin in China,' Kumar said.