Toyota India to double sales in 2011 on the back of Etios
22 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:Mumbai/Ahmedabad: Unabashed by the crisis that hit the company's US operations, Toyota Kirloskar Motors(TKM), the Japanese carmaker's Indian subsidiary, is bullish on doubling its sales in 2011 from an estimated 70,000 units this year on the back of its upcoming B segment car, the Etios. Etios will also be the first car that Toyota will export from its Indian operations. The company had sold 55,497 units in the country in 2009 calendar year , which was mainly led by Innova sales. The popular sports utility vehicle(SUV) from the Toyota stable sold around 42,700 units as against 9100 units of the Corolla and 3150 units of the Fortuner. "We hope to sell around 70,000 units of the Etios only in 2011, taking our net sales to well above 1.4 lakh units", informed Koji Nagata, executive managing coordinator and director(marketing), TKM. The company will start production of the Etios from December 2010, and while the exact time of the launch is yet to be decided, the car is expected to hit Indian roads in the first quarter of 2011. Toyota has developed a sedan and a hatchback variant on the Etios platform and has also set up a separate plant for its India small car project at its Bidadi premises near Bangalore with an investment of Rs 3200 crore that will have a manufacturing capacity of 70,000 units in the first phase expandable up to one lakh units per annum. Toyota's Bidadi plant is spread over 425 acres and already had an 80,000 units per annum manufacturing facility for the Innova, Corolla and the Fortuner that used up only around a quarter of the available space. "We plan to export the Etios from India too, but after consolidating our sales here.This is a car developed specifically for the Indian market.", said Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director of TKM. While exports can start by the end of 2011, volumes are yet to finalised. The company is also yet to arrive at a pricing for the Etios, but Nakagawa said that it could be priced in the range of the Maruti Suzuki Swift, its sedan variant Swift Dzire and Hyundai i20. Toyota was so far not present in the volume segment of the Indian market, which happens to be the small cars. The small car market in the country, roughly around two million units now, is likely to touch four million by 2015. The company is now taking the Etios concept car to major Indian cities through an auto show, Toyota Q World,that also showcases the entire portfolio of Toyota cars along with the future line up of Toyota products like the LC 200 and the Toyota Prius. The ten cities to host the event are Chandigarh, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.
22 Feb 2010;economictimes.indiatimes.com:SINGAPORE: Oil topped 80 dollars a barrel in Asian trade Monday as a strike at French energy giant Total and concerns over Iran's nuclear programme rattled the market, analysts said. New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was up 63 cents at 80.44 dollars a barrel in morning trade. Brent North Sea crude for April delivery gained 61 cents to 78.80 dollars. "The sentiment is quite bullish at this time because of the refinery strikes in France and the concerns over Iran's nuclear issues," said Victor Shum, senior principal at Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore. A strike by workers of energy major Total entered its sixth day Monday. On Sunday, drivers on France rushed to fill their tanks ahead of the travel-intensive mid-term school holidays amid fears of petrol shortages. Total's management said Friday it had started gradually halting refining operations after unions announced an open-ended stoppage at all of its six French refineries, in protest at the closure of a plant in Dunkirk. Total supplies about half of France's filling stations. Tensions between crude-exporter Iran and the West over Tehran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions also helped boost prices, analysts said. The US and other world powers are drumming up support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its refusal to comply with repeated ultimatums to suspend uranium enrichment and agree to a UN-backed nuclear fuel deal. However, Shum warned that the rally might run out of steam due supply continuing to outstrip demand. "I think it is not sustainable at this level... there is still a lot of inventory and a lot of spare refining capacity," he said.
20 Feb 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi: NTPC Ltd has signed agreement to buy 1.2 million cubic meters a day of more gas from Reliance Industries’ eastern offshore KG-D6 fields at the government-approved price of $4.2 per mmBtu. NTPC signed Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) to buy more gas on February 16, taking its total supplies from KG-D6 to 1.81 mmscmd, sources said. The government had in October 2009 allocated NTPC 3.85 mmscmd, beyond the 0.61 mmscmd it had earlier signed for. But NTPC did not want to use the KG-D6 gas at its Kawas and Gandhar power plants in Gujarat, which are connected with pipelines ferrying KG-D6 gas from the Andhra coast. So, a swap arrangement was worked out wherein GAIL India was to divert gas from other sources to NTPC and supply Reliance gas to its existing customers.
20 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:Ahmedabad: The world's largest carmaker Toyota today said it will begin production of its concept car Etios by December this year and will price it competitively. "Etios means spirit and principle. This car of ours is targeted at the middle level managers and young professionals and will be priced competitively," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa told media persons after inaugurating the Toyota Q-World Auto show here. The company would launch both hatchback and sedan under the Etios series with 1.2 litres and 1.5 litres petrol engines respectively, he said. Nakagawa said though the price of the car would be decided before the official launch, its hatch back version would be in the range of Maruti Swift and Ritz, while the sedan version would compete with Tata Manza and Maruti Dezire in the B segment category. The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with Kirloskar Group, has invested over Rs 3,200 crore to set up its second manufacturing facility in Bangalore for Etios with an initial capacity of 70,000 units per year. "The manufacturing capacity is spread over 425 acre and based on customer response after the Etios rolls out, the manufacturing capacity of the plant could be increased to nearly 200,000 units per year," Nakagawa added.
20 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:Mumbai: The new offer will include cash and stock options for shareholders and creditors. Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries may spring a surprise in the tussle to take control of LyondellBasell, by raising its offer for the Dutch company at the last moment. Today would be the deadline for a revised proposal. Sources at RIL said the company was still working on its offer and may hike it marginally after taking into account the latest development. The earlier RIL offer had valued the bankrupt petrochemicals maker at about $13.5 billion. The new offer would include cash and stock options for shareholders and creditors. On Tuesday, LyondellBasell's unsecured creditors had agreed to settle the dispute over their claims and decided to support the reorganisation plan of the present management. The management offered an additional $150 million towards the claims of unsecured creditors, for settling the dispute. The unsecured creditors, who had part-funded Basell in a leveraged buyout of the US-based Lyondell in 2007, were supporting the entry of potential investors such as RIL to rescue it. Unsecured creditors, including bond holders, are estimated to hold around $3 billion of debt in the company. The reorganisation plan of Lyondell’s management offered to convert $18 billion debt of secured and unsecured creditors, including bridge loans, into equity. Moreover, the existing promoters will subscribe to the $3-billion rights issue of the company to continue management control. After implementing the plan, the chemical giant would value around $21 billion, said analysts. Once Lyondell emerges out of Chapter 11 (a legal provision where a company gets breathing space to restructure itself as an alternative to formal bankruptcy) ain the US, RIL would prefer to have a controlling stake in the company by buying out a part of the shareholders’ equity and subsequently subscribing to fresh shares. It had been building a financial war chest in the past six months by selling its treasury shares, eyeing "global opportunities". While it has a cash reserve of over Rs 9,000 crore through the sale of its treasury stock, it is in a position to raise another Rs 13,000 crore by selling the remaining treasury shares. A team headed by Ambani’s right hand man, Manoj Modi, had even been sent to negotiate with the management and creditors to thrash out an acquisition plan. Agencies quoted David Harpole, the spokesperson of LyondellBasell, as saying any alternative to its reorganisation plan needs to be much better and attractive, that maximises the value for creditors. Analysts said RIL would have to quote more than $15 billion to make the bid attractive for Lyondell.
18 Feb 2010;business-standard.com:George Joseph:Kochi: The tyre industry expects prices to increase further after the Budget as the prices of the raw material are on an upsurge. Natural rubber (NR) prices have been appreciating since the last few months. The price of benchmark grade RSS-4 increased to Rs 140 a kg today from Rs 134 a kg last week. The possibility of a second round of price rise this year will be viewed only after the Budget, said a top official of Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (Atma). “We have submitted some proposals to the Minister for Finance in the pre-Budget discussion and hope for the best. The bull phase in the NR market is likely to continue for the next few months as this is an off season. So tyre companies can not go for long with the existing price pattern,” he said. It is too early to comment on a second round of price increase, said AS Mehta, director (marketing), JK Tyres. “The import duty structure on NR and tyres is highly negative to the industry and the duty on NR should be reduced. at present, the duty on tyre is 10 per cent while NR has got an import duty of 20 per cent. How can we justify just half the duty of raw material for the finished product,” he added. “The industry also expects a rollback in the stimulus package in a phased manner. This would add further pressure on the industry. So there is every possibility of a review after the Budget. The excise duty structure may also be enhanced by 2 per cent. The industry wishes to continue with the stimulus package as the financial crisis is not over. So we will have to analyse the market conditions for what move should be adopted after the budget,” he added. Satish Sharma, chief (manufacturing and marketing) of Appollo Tyre said there is a lot of pressure on the tyre companies as price of NR is increasing alarmingly. In a pre-Budget memorandum, Atma pointed out that tyre exports continue to be seriously affected due to recessionary conditions prevailing outside the country.
