Auto components supplier Rockman industries, part of the Hero Group, has acquired a majority stake in Moldex Composites, a Gujarat-based British-Indian design and manufacturing company.
Moldex Composites supplies carbon composites to motor racing in the USA. ‘Our investment into the carbon composites technology is aimed at pre-empting the global shift towards carbon fiber in automobiles, besides an entry into motorsports and aerospace,’ said Suman Kant Munjal, chairman and managing director, Rockman Industries. ‘The move is also a part of our diversification strategy aimed at a turnover of Rs 5000 crore by 2021. Carbon composites is expected to account for 10% of Rockman Industries turnover in the next five years.’ Moldex is a phased acquisition, which will be at an ultimate valuation close to Rs 100 crore, he said. Rockman is looking to expand Moldex's presence in Europe and US and has already started a sales office in the UK and is building a sales team. Rockman is actively looking to invest in manufacturing facilities in Europe or USA with a focus on growing existing business, which is motorsports, and then gradually move into aerospace as well as high-end premium, luxury and sports cars.
Composite advantages ‘Carbon composites are replacing conventional aluminium alloys and steel components in aerospace, motorsports, automobiles, medical and defense applications,’ said Ian Thomson, co-founder, Moldex Composites. ‘These composite materials ensure reduction in complete life cycle costs not only due to their lower weight but also longer life reducing down-time of whatever they are fitted to. The advantages of composites are lower weight, higher performance, good fatigue, good corrosion resistance and their ability to be readily formed into complex shapes and fully integrated structures with less capital expenditure in tooling. A typical carbon composite would provide same strength as steel or aluminum with one-fourth of the weight of steel and half the weight of aluminum.’
This story is reprinted from material from Rockman, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
