Rane TRW opens ₹18-cr unit to make airbags Monday August 24,2015

Automobile components manufacturer Rane TRW Steering Systems has expanded its product base with the inauguration of an airbag manufacturing plant.

The company’s Occupant Safety Division, which makes automobile seat belts, has now added airbags to its product range with the formal commissioning of the factory at Singaperumal Koil,about 40 km south of Chennai

Harish Lakshman, Managing Director, Rane TRW Steering Systems, said the ₹18-crore factory with a capacity to assemble 500,000 airbags for driver and passenger side has completed trial production.

The capacity will be doubled in the next two years, he said. Rane TRW is ideally positioned to tap into the growing demand for the safety features as India starts making airbags mandatory in new cars from October 2017 and in phases making it compulsory for all cars by 2020.

Leading automobile manufacturers such as Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford, and recently, Renault are Rane TRW’s customers for airbags. 

Both the seatbelt and airbag units will benefit from the legislations that enhance passenger safety standards in vehicles. 

The seat belt factory makes about three million units a year and caters to domestic and international markets.