The US market remains Indian priority

Acquisitions and plans for greenfield operations make up India's recent impact in the US. TVS Group firm plans overseas plant

The TVS Group's flagship firm Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL), a leading Indian manufacturer and supplier of aluminium cast products to global automotive OEMs, has unveiled plans for a new overseas plant. The company is to also invest $61.5 million (Rs 400 crore) over three years to expand its facilities in India. This will increase its capacity from 60,000 MT to 70,000 MT. The company will also set up its first manufacturing facility outside of India with an additional investment of over $50 million (Rs 350 crore) to create 10,000 MT of capacity over a period of five years. The facility will be located in in Dorchester County, South Carolina, US. Currently, the US contributes a major share of SCL's export revenue. SCL has four manufacturing plants in India and is known for its robust manufacturing expertise driven by TQM, TPM and lean practices. The planned investment will enable the company to cater to the growth that it expects from the Indian market. Gujarat clinical firm in US acquisition

Ahmedabad-based full service clinical research organisation (CRO) Cliantha Research has acquired US-based Inflamax Research. The deal enables Cliantha Research to conduct Phase I, II, III and IV clinical research in North America region. Inflamax claims world renowned expertise in inflammatory disease research and patented natural allergen Environmental Exposure Chambers (EEC), which will allow Cliantha to conduct asthma, allergy, ophthalmology, and tobacco research as well as specialised pulmonary/respiratory therapeutic studies, a company statement said. Vijay Patel, executive director, Cliantha Research, said: "Inflamax is the leader in research in inflammatory disease with specialty in Environmental Exposure Chamber technologies. Now we can provide our sponsors with advanced clinical trial designs along with a strong, highly experienced scientific team in North America. “This acquisition brings us closer to our goal of offering highly specialised trials to our sponsor." Jindal Films to set up in US

Jindal Films Americas (JFA), a part of the India-based BC Jindal Group, is expanding its product offering to include polyester films by setting up a plant at LaGrange in Georgia, US, with an investment of $120 million. JFA is a manufacturer of high performance films for flexible packaging and labelling. The planned polyester plant, expected to become operational by early 2019, will have a capacity of 65,000 metric tonnes of film. The plant would be composed of two lines, enabling Jindal Films to provide a product offering of both thin specialty and thick specialty films. Marcelo Passos, executive vice-president and CEO of Jindal Films Americas, said: “We are very excited to introduce the plans to expand our capabilities into polyester film film in the Americas.” As the American arm initiates plans to expand, Jindal Films Europe is also considering a similar expansion in its region.