With increased focus on local manufacturing, India’s auto component sector should target to boost its exports five-fold to $100 billion by the end of the decade, according to Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
“I hold to my 2030 target of $100 billion,” Goyal said today while speaking at the annual conference of the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India.
“Your [component makers] skills, talents, and hardwork will certainly help take this industry’s export to $100 billion by 2030, making it one of the largest job generators in the country.”
The Indian component industry’s turnover in 2023-24 was at Rs 6.14 lakh crore ($74.1 billion), with exports accounting for $21.2 billion. Imports during the year came in at $20.9 billion.
The minister noted that the component manufacturers have been proactive in all Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Several global auto companies are now looking at India as a significant market for domestic sales as well as exports as they are looking beyond China for a reliable and low-cost base.
Ramping up the exports will call for significant investment in capacity, quality, capability and digitisation. Auto component makers in India are expected to invest $6-7 billion in the next five years with a large part of it going for new technologies.
“Many of our component manufacturers still import, whether under compulsion or voluntarily…I don’t understand why 2-3 levels down, we cannot plan to become Indigenous suppliers and manufacturers so that we can then start supplying those components to other countries,” Goyal said.
Engine components, chasis, suspension and breaking, and drive, transmission and steering are among the major auto components that the industry depends on imports.