Rolls Royce planning a Joint Venture with HAL
ROLLS-ROYCE Corporation is planning a JV with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) for manufacturing of engines, components and gas turbines. Rolls-Royce together with Bell Helicopters is bidding for this Indian Army contract of 197 helicopters, where it is piped against a Euro Copter-led consortium. “Our engines have performed very well in the technical trials, which include heat and altitude testing. Now we are looking forward to partnering HAL rather than being just suppliers,” Mr Scott Crislip, global president, Helicopter & Small Gas Turbine Engines, Rolls-Royce, told ET in an interview. The roadmap for the contract is expected to be finalised byend-2006.
The company is also keen on partnering HAL in the indigenous helicopter programme - Dhruv - and has put forth multiple proposals to the Indian manufacturer. Besides, as per the plan, it would also help in marketing the gas turbines manufactured in the JV. HAL is already one of the strategic suppliers of rolled ring forging to Rolls-Royce. Now, Rolls-Royce is looking at a complete technical transfer to indude design, technical development, manufacturing, service et al on the six sigma prindple, “Indigenous capability is extremely important in this business as the cost to capital is very high,” Mr Crislip said.
Rolls-Royce already has more than 1,300 engines operational in India. “With aviation turbine fuel (ATF) hitting an all-time high, the need for Rolls-Royce’s gas turbine engines is expected to escalate,” he said.
Withthehelicopterindustrygrowingat7%, the maximum growth is expected from the US, South America and Asia. Mr Crislip sees the next 10-15 years as the real period of growth for the helicopter business in India as people are replacing older models and looking at long-term service offerings with innovative solutions. While US has one commercial helicopter per 1,000 people, Japan has one per 10,000 people and India has one per 10million people.
Source : ET
