Development and Spatial Dynamism of the Automobile Component Industry in India

Tomozawa Kazuo

Journal of Urban and Regional Studies on Contemporary India

This study focuses on the recent development of the automobile component industry and examines its spatial dynamism in India, where vehicle production has rapidly expanded over the past ten years. Based on the directory of the Automobile Components Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), a database of 610 companies was created. Overall, the database exhibited a pyramid structure of many small- and medium-sized companies at the bottom and a few large companies at the top. The majority of the 610 companies were classified as OEM suppliers. There was a strong correlation between the number of plants and the number of automobile manufacturers that were customers.

Spatially, three industrial agglomerations, the National Capital Region of Delhi, Western Maharashtra, and Chennai-Bangalore, have formed in India. An analysis of the location patterns of corporate headquarters, major plants, and branch plants clarified that they had different location principles. Headquarters were mostly situated in a core city, while the main plants were located in the same city or its suburbs. The branch plants increased the trend of being distributed in the suburbs. This spatially resulted in the expansion of agglomerations. In addition, some blanch plants were located inside other agglomerations or regions where automobile manufacturers have set up new assembly plants, which led to component companies being located in multiple locations.

automobile component industry

industrial agglomeration

multiple locations

India

Economics [ 330 ]

eng

The Center for Contemporary India Studies, Hiroshima University

(c) 2016 The Center for Contemporary India Studies, Hiroshima University

[ISSN] 2188-5222