European aircraft manufacturer Airbus will continue to increase its use of Indian manufacturing in the years ahead.
The company announced today that it had procured in total $500m worth of aerostructures, plane components, materials, and services in India during the 2015 period.
This figure represents a 15% increase on the previous year’s procurement, marking a continuing expansion of Indian manufacturing for Airbus.
All up the company has targeted a total of $2bn worth of procurement from the country by 2020.
“Indian suppliers are a cornerstone of our globalisation strategy,” said Airbus chief procurement officer Klaus Richter.
“Many of the projects with our Indian partners have been very successful and we aim to further strengthen these relationships in the future.”
Currently, a large number of Indian companies including large players like Hindustan Aeronautics, Mahindra Aerospace and Tata Advanced Systems are producing parts for Airbus.
All up 45 companies and 6000 people are reportedly employed in the manufacturing of aircraft sub-systems and parts for Airbus.
Together they produce parts not just for the company’s commercial passenger jets but also for military transport aircraft and attack helicopters.
In a statement, the company proclaimed that every new Airbus aircraft built is now partially made in India.
Indian manufacturing growth success
The expansion of Airbus’s component manufacturing within in India fits in well with the ‘Make in India’ campaign pushed by the current government of PM Nahendra Modi.
This campaign to encourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India’s manufacturing industry has been hugely successful, with the country having surpassed China to become the top global recipient of FDI in 2015.
Defence and aerospace manufacturing are given prominence within ‘Make in India’ as the country attempts to build up its own industries and reduce the need for expensive imports.
As such the growth in production for Airbus is yet another sign of success for this campaign.
Airbus eyes $2bn of India manufacturing by 2020
