Kolkata, July 14 (IANS) To meet the growing demand for batteries from the car and motorcycle sectors, Exide Industries is planning to spend Rs.400 crore this fiscal (2010-11) to increase capacity in its various plants, a top company official said here Wednesday.
‘We will be increasing capacity around 28 percent on SLI (starting-lighting-ignition) and 60 percent in motor cycle sector,’ T.V. Ramanathan, managing director and chief executive officer, told reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the company.
SLI batteries are used in cars.
Out of Rs.400 crore, the company would spend Rs.80 crore on its Ahmednagar plant in Maharashtra that would come up in August this year.
Asked whether this Rs.400 crore is from the qualified institutional placement (QIP) that the company went into in March, he said: ‘We are spending money out of Rs.530 crore QIP.’
Ramanathan said the company would depend more on its smelting facilities to source lead.
‘Last year (2009-10), 42 percent of our lead requirement came from the two smelters we have. We plan to source 70 percent within the next two-three years through expansion of the these facilities or by acquisition of smelting capacities,’ he said.
Exide is working on new products like lithium-ion batteries for automobile and batteries for electric motorbikes.
