Ford to ride Indian roads for acceleration: Mulally
15 March 2010;timesofindia.indiatimes.com:Pankaj Doval:NEW DELHI: Ford boss Alan Mulally is on a high, after putting back the auto major on a strong wicket. For the first time over a decade, Ford has overtaken GM in monthly (February) sales in the US. It also staved off a government bailout, while rivals GM and Chrysler struggled. With the company firmly saddled in various key markets, Mulally has now trained his eyes on India, a market he believes will grow rapidly and help Ford retain its strength in the coming years. Mulally, who took charge more than three years ago after joining from Boeing, is now focusing heavily on the Asia-Pacific region that he expects to grow at double the pace of the other regions like American and European markets, which are limping back to recovery. “India is a key market in the Asia-Pacific region and we are going to accelerate introduction of more and more cars in India. we are a little slower than competition in developing Asia-Pacific. But now we are aggressively launching vehicles and want to accelerate our business here,” Mulally said. The company’s aggressive stance in India is evident from pricing of compact car Figo at Rs 3.49 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Mulally termed the Figo as a “dynamite” vehicle for Ford India and said the company will look at adding more such products. “Clearly, we have come later to the small car market in India than competitors. But now we are going to start, to continuously accelerate, and introduce more and more vehicles. It’s a great market with great customers. You will see us accelerate our progress every year.” He said the compact car segment and less expensive sedans would be one of the key areas for the company in India. “Clearly, the B (compact) and C (entry-level sedans) size makes more sense for us to increase our presence here.” Speaking about competition from established brands like Maruti, Hyundai and Tata, who are strong on product-costing front, Mulally said, “we are absolutely going to be competitive on price, in addition to quality, fuel efficiency, safety and smart design... our plan is to get in one ‘dynamite’ vehicle at a time. Figo is one such product.” On the global auto industry, he said, “The numbers are coming back. In the US, our guidance for industry sale is about 11.5-12.5 million vehicles. I would say that the comeback is little bit slower than recoveries from past recession just because we have been so deep within the recession.” He also expressed optimism on European markets. “The demand was relatively high last year due to scrappage schemes. But the interesting thing is pent up demand, which can be seen from the first couple of months that have been relatively high. We are cautiously optimistic that Europe will also grow and can touch around 15 million units on an annualised basis.” Mulally said demand in the auto industry will closely mirror the economic growth in most markets. “It’s going to be a few years before it gets back to the highs,” he said.
14 March 2010;deccanherald.com:Mumbai:Two terror suspects plotting to set a strategic Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) installation in Mumbai on fire were nabbed by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad following a tip-off from central intelligence agencies. The duo, identified as Abdul Latif alias Guddu (29) and Riyaz Ali (23), was picked from near Matunga Railway Station in central Mumbai on Saturday night. They were produced before a metropolitan court on Sunday which remanded them to police custody till March 18. The accused were charged with relevant sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. ATS chief K P Raghuvanshi told reporters that the suspects were targeting an ONGC installation, Thakkar Mall and Mangaldas market. “They wanted to execute their terror plans of setting these targets on fire soon,” he said. Thakkar Mall is located in suburban Borivali while Mangaldas Market is situated in South Mumbai. The ONGC installation was not specified by the ATS, although it could be their office building in Bandra. “They were getting instructions from Pakistan to execute their activities here,” Raghuvanshi said. Preliminary probe suggested that the duo was following instructions from someone called “Uncle” in Pakistan. “We are taking the help of central security agencies to identify the person referred to as ‘Uncle’,” the ATS chief, who is also supervising the probe into the Pune terror blast, said. Abdul Latif is a Bandra resident and Riyaz Ali is from Dahisar. They were also given the task of arranging passports to send their associates to Pakistan for recruitment. “The suspects had also submitted relevant documents to apply for passports. But before their associates reached Pakistan, they wanted to carry out a big incident here,” Raghuvanshi said. “The duo identified the targets and they were arranging things to execute them fast. Their plan included sabotage and setting ablaze targets,” he said. “We feel that more people were involved in this,” Raghuvanshi said. The ATS has been working on inputs about terror suspects for the last two to three weeks. The suspects were not much educated but knew how to operate a computer, the ATS chief said. However, the ATS has not made any headway in their probe into the bombing of German Bakery in Pune, even a month after the blast and have not been able to arrest anybody in that connection. Meanwhile, in Ahmedabad, police foiled a plan by Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen to set up a base in Gujarat following the arrest of a Kashmiri resident Bashir Ahmed Baba alias “Pepsi bomber” who was allegedly recruiting youths. Babi, a resident of Srinagar, had conducted a recce of key sites including ISRO facility and Akshardham in the state, police said. Gujarat ATS chief Ajay Tomar said Bashir was in “close contact with Hizbul Mujaheedin leader Bilal Shera who is located in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
12 March 2010;deccanherald.com:Bangalore:Ford India, on Thursday, launched petrol and diesel versions of its first compact car Figo in Bangalore. While the petrol version is priced in the range of Rs 3.49 lakh and Rs 4.42 lakh (exshowroom Bangalore), the diesel version is priced between Rs 4.47 lakh and Rs 5.30 lakh. Briefing reporers, company Executive Director, Marketing, Sales & Service Nigel E Wark said “We have competitively priced all four variants of the car. Figo offer more features, interior space, technology and durability than other vehicles at this price range in the segment.” The petrol version of the car will have a four-cylinder 1.2 litre, 16 valve Duratec engine that will give a maximum power of 71 PS at 6,250 rpm and maximum torque of 102 nm at 4,000 rpm. This, Ford claims, will have fuel economy of 15.6 km a litre under optimum driving conditions. Figo will also have a more powerful 1.4 litre Duratorq diesel engine that works on Ford’s own CRDi (common rail direct injection) technology. This engine produces maximum power of 69 ps at 4,000 rpm and maximum torque of 160 nm at 2,000 rpm. Ford claims the diesel Figo will give a fuel economy of 20 km per litre on ideal driving conditions. The car also comes with unique features like speed sensing volume control of the audio system, distance-to-empty indicator, lane changing indicator with one flick and a warning system when car goes for rapid deceleration at high speed. The top-end variant –– Figo Titanium –– will have dual front air bag and antilock braking system (ABS). Despite being compact in size, Figo has a fairly large boot space (284 litre) and can seat five persons. Its exterior styling follows Ford’s global kinetic design elements that harmonise Figo with other models in the Ford global line-up including Focus and Mondeo. Though Figo has been specially developed for the Indian market and is being manufactured in Ford India’s Chennai plant, the company will start exporting it to the European market by the end of current year.
12 March 2010;dailypioneer.com:New Delhi:Country’s largest two wheeler maker Hero Honda on Thursday said it is conducting a feasibility study in 10 states to find the best suitable location for its fourth manufacturing facility and the decision will be taken in the next six months. “There would be at least 10 states we would be looking at, at this moment. We are looking at the whole country as a clean slate,” Hero Honda Managing Director Pawan Munjal told reporters on the sidelines of Hero Groups Mindmine Summit here. When asked about his meeting with the Karnataka Chief Minister for setting up the plant in the state, he said, “Yes we met the Karnataka Chief Minister...I thought they were very open for us to go to the state. It was just a request from the Chief Minister to have breakfast with him, so we did.” The company is also considering Rajasthan for the proposed plant, for which the state government had earlier promised to allot land but is now facing protest from the locals. Talking about the plant, Munjal said, “the feasibility study would come up with capacity, investment, models and the location. It is going to take us six months to take the final call.”
12 March 2010;hindustantimes.com:Frankfurt:German luxury car maker BMW on Thursday reported a 36.4 percent drop in 2009 net profit to 210 million euros (287 million dollars). A company statement added however that sales by the world's leading luxury auto manufacturer were expected to increase this year by 50,000 vehicles to 1.3 million.
No plans to sell stake in ONGC, IOC: Petroleum Secretary
11 March 2010;deccanherald.com:New Delhi:The government is not considering selling equity in Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan said on Wednesday. Both IOC and ONGC are not in favour of raising money through equity route as valuations are being impacted due to uncertain fuel pricing policy. Also, market conditions were not right for FPOs. "(These are) not the correct market time for FPOs," he said.
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