Automotive Axles Limited is a joint venture company incorporated in 1981, between Bharat Forge Limited, Pune, India and Meritor Heavy
Vehicle Systems LLC, USA (35.52% equity stake). The Company is the largest independent manufacturer of Rear Drive Axle Assemblies in the country and is primarily engaged in manufacturing of Axles and Brakes at Mysore, Rudrapur and Jamshedpur.
The Company's Rs 30.3- Cr. project at Hootagali near Mysore, commenced commercial production in Jul.'84. The company entered the capital market with a public issue.
The Company came out of the purview of the Sick Industrial Companies Act, 1985. But, the very next year, its Networth started to erode. So, in 1994-95, it embarked on a restructuring of the capital in consultation with financial institutions. The company came out with a rights issue in Feb.'95 to part-finance an expansion project to increase the manufacturing capacity of axles and brakes.
During 1996-97, the expansion of Axles capacity has been completed and of brakes was put on hold in view of down turn in the market.
The company managed to achieve an impressive 20% growth in sales during the year 1999-2000. As the company is continuing to pursue its efforts on increasing penetration into other domestic and export market opportunities, Meritor HVS (India) Ltd has tied-up technical licensing arrangement for new products for Ashok Leyland and Volvo India Ltd., and already export business worth US $ 4 Million has been achieved.
During 2010-2011, Company had established brake manufacturing facility at Mysore & Rudrapur with Building, Plant and Machinery purchased from Kalyani Global Engineering Pvt Ltd. Thereafter, it established Contract Manufacturing Facility for manufacturing Trailer Axles in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh with the plant and inventories purchased from ANG Industries Limited.
During the year 2011-12, the Company took up the initiative, along with other group companies, to generate power from Green Energy sources and installed one Wind Turbine Generator with 2.00 MW generation capacity at Tithwa, Gujarat. Total Generation of power from the wind mill during the year was 17.42 Lacs KwH (April to September, 2012) which was in turn sold to Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited. Company launched two new products in 2012-13 - one in the lower variant of 5T axle and the higher variant of 18T reduction axle.
The Company expanded its manufacturing foot print with a new state-of-the-art plant at Jamshedpur for manufacturing Brakes and Trailer axles. The plant had 50,000 Sq.Ft built-up area and had a capacity to make 30,000 brakes and 2,500 Tag & Trailer per month in FY 2013-14. The Company installed a facility to manufacture Hub Reduction Axles at its Mysuru plant during FY 2014-15.
During the year 2021-22, Company introduced the largest axle in India for 55 tonnes vehicles.
On February 21, 2022, Cummins Inc. entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger with Meritor Inc., to acquire 100% of the capital stock of Meritor Inc. and the Merger got completed on August 3, 2022 pursuant to the Merger Agreement. Based on the aforesaid transactions Cummins Inc. made an open offer to acquire 26% of the Voting Share Capital of the Company as per the requirement of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 which got completed on January 11, 2023 with the acquisition of 145 number of Equity Shares of the total offer made.