The Indian aluminium industry is seeking duty adjustments on imports and input material used in aluminium production to secure domestic market and drive investments in run up to Budget 2025. Leading industry associations, including the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) and the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), have separately submitted their pre-budget recommendations to the Ministry of Finance (Government of India), urging policy changes to strengthen India’s aluminium industry.

As India strives towards becoming a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, the associations emphasise aluminium's vital role in economic growth, with extensive applications across defence, infrastructure, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Stating that the surge in primary aluminium and low-grade scrap imports, particularly from countries with excess capacity like China, has disrupted the domestic market and deterred investment in local production, the AAI has suggested raising of import duties on primary aluminium from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent; from 7.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent in the case of downstream aluminium, and to set aluminium scrap duties at 7.5 percent to curb low-quality scrap inflow and support domestic recycling efforts.

FIMI has called for an increase in primary/downstream aluminium import duties to 12.5 percent along with raising aluminium scrap duties from 2.5 percent to 7.5 percent or higher.

Of the opinion that high duties on essential raw materials have created an inverted duty structure, adding costs for domestic aluminium producers, sources close to the aluminium industry in the country have expressed that a reduction in custom duty on several materials could help to address this.

GIMI has also recommended reduction of customs duty on several materials such as Calcined Petroleum Coke from 7.5 percent to 2.5 percent; to eliminate the duty on Caustic Soda Lye and to lower Aluminium Fluoride duty to 2.5 percent.

By rationalising these input tariffs, the industry could reduce production costs by up to 17 percent, bringing Indian aluminium production closer to global cost standards and enhancing its competitiveness.

The aluminium industry is also impacted by high energy costs due to the GST Compensation Cess of INR 400 per metric tonne on coal.

FIMI has recommended removing this ‘cess’ or allowing it as an offset against green compliance costs, which would reduce operational costs and support the industry’s shift towards sustainable practices.

India holds a strategic advantage with the world’s seventh-largest bauxite reserves and fifth-largest coal reserves. Yet, despite India’s per capita aluminium consumption remaining low at 3 kg per annum, well below the global average of 12 kg. The industry faces significant hurdles in attracting fresh investments despite the domestic demand projected to reach 10 MTPA by 2030. While the industry has already invested over US $20 billion to expand capacity to 4.2 MTPA, an additional US $40 billion will be required over the next six years that will help meet rising demand.

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The 42 days festive period vehicle retail data for 2024 that the Federation Of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has released, the overall sales of automobiles during this festive season have exceeded that of the last festive season. 
"I am delighted to announce that the automobile retail sector has achieved a new milestone, surpassing last year's festive records. We witnessed a remarkable surge in numbers since the beginning of Navratri, nearly hitting our forecasted target with 42.88 lakh vehicles registered during this period — a growth of 11.76 percent over last year's 38.37 lakh units,” mentioned C S Vigneshwar, President, FADA. 
Two-wheeler sales were particularly robust, according to him, registering a 13.79 percent growth to reach 3.31 million units, largely driven by strong rural demand. 
Passenger vehicle sales bounced back after a decline of roughly two-to-three months with a growth of 7.10 percent to 0.6 million units, spurred by pent-up demand and unprecedented discounts available in the market. 
Acknowledging that the target of 45,00,000-unit sales could have been fully met or even exceeded were it not for the unseasonal heavy rains in South India (especially in Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu) and the Cyclone Dana that affected Odisha, Vigneshwar averred, “FADA anticipates – as the festivities conclude – that passenger vehicle stock levels will reduce further from was reported in the October retail data press release.”
“FADA advises caution as the complete picture on inventory will emerge by month-end,” he added. 
Stating that FADA urges OEMs to focus on liquidating 2024 stock so that Dealers can enter 2025 with ideal FADA-recommended 21 days of inventory, Vigneshwar said, “Its 1.5 months remaining before the calendar year ends.”
 

The Auto Cluster Development And Research Institute, Chinchwad MIDC (Pune), is conducting a three-day workshop on TIG welding technology in its campus on 27-29 November 2024. 
Lead by experts in the respective field such as Chandrakant Vaidya, who has over 40 years of experience in QAC and welding (and has worked at ENPRO Industries, Thermax and Babcock and Wilcox Energy System), and Vijay Patole, who too has over 40 years of experience in welding, the workshop will delve a variety of topics in the field of TIG welding. 
Besides introducing the attendees to TIG welding, the workshop will delve into TIG welding theory, TIG welding equipment and setup, demonstration and hands-on practice, TIG welding techniques, welding different materials, welding positions and techniques, joint types, advanced TIG welding techniques, quality control, troubleshooting, weld quality inspection, final practice and project, industry-specific applications and welding equipment maintenance among other areas of knowledge and information. 
The three-day workshop would include breakfast and lunch. The workshop has been specifically curated to ensure skill development and upskilling of those who are seeking to upgrade their skills in the respective field of manufacturing technology. 
 

Introducing significant advancement in automotive semiconductor technology at the recent Snapdragon Summit 2024 with a focus on improving the cockpit and ADAS experience, Qualcomm has reported strong growth in its automotive revenue in the current calendar year. 
The growth story at Nvidia – with a lucrative detour into AI – is indicative of the developments in autonomous vehicle technologies.  
The tech major may not enjoy the popularity or acceptance that Qualcomm has come to command, the fact is, both are seeking an innovative approach to automobiles as their users seek new and exciting features. 
While legacy automotive tier 1 suppliers like Schaeffler, Bosch and others facing the challenge of sluggish demand, the system-to-chip (SoC) technology companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia are engineering a different dimension to the art of automobile design, development and manufacture.  
Enjoying an EBITDA margin of around 30 percent as compared to the five percent EBITDA margin roughly of tier 1 automotive suppliers, Qualcomm and Nvidia are driving the age of software defined vehicles that are already calling for engineers with a deeper understanding of software. 
C++ or Autosar may be the language most automotive software programmes use as the basis, from a features or convenience point of view, even the presence of rain sensing wipers or an air-con that can be switched on or off with a voice command are fast gaining prominence among automotive buyers as they seek a different level of emotion connection with their set of wheels. 
From a vehicle architecture point of view, please consider the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis. It has evolved with the introduction of the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite platforms on the hardware side. 
Aiding faster computing speeds, both the platforms feature the Oryon CPU. This CPU has been optimised for automotive safety standards and designed for 3x faster CPU performance than previous generations, according to Qualcomm sources.  
Aiding to enhance in-vehicle digital experiences by integrating advanced infotainment with autonomous driving capabilities on a single chip, developments like this mark an interesting milestone in the world of automobiles. 
An important milestone will be the plan by Qualcomm to introduce lower-tier versions of these platforms to broaden their applications, enabling automakers to develop cost-effective solutions across various market segments. 
The Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite SoCs are expected to be available to manufacturers starting in 2025, with early adopters such as Mercedes-Benz and Li Auto planning to integrate these technologies into their upcoming models. 
The first vehicles using these platforms are expected to be available by 2026 in China. Releases in other markets in the world will soon follow. 
Talking about Nvidia's lucrative detour into AI, Ola Electric has developed an Ola Digital Twin platform on NVIDIA Omniverse that is helping it to achieve 20 percent faster time-to-market – from design to commissioning for its manufacturing operations.
Built on NVIDIA Isaac Sim, the Ola Digital Twin platform taps into core Omniverse technologies like OpenUSD for data interoperability, RTX for physically-based rendering, and generative AI for accelerated world building to generate synthetic data or training autonomous mobile robots and robotic arms.
Consulting leaders such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tech Mahindra are developing industrial AI applications and services on Omniverse to help manufacturers develop digital twins for accelerated factory planning, optimised processes, robotics training and large-scale automation, according to an industry source aware of the new developments in AI and industrial automation.

Edge AI and software virtualisation
At Snapdragon Summit 2024, Qualcomm emphasised the benefits of edge AI over traditional cloud-based solutions, particularly in terms of privacy and latency. 
By processing data locally within the vehicle, edge AI enhances data security and ensures that sensitive information remains protected. Recent advancements in AI models, such as Llama 3.0, illustrate that edge AI can deliver strong performance while reducing memory requirements, which may lead to cost savings for manufacturers.
Interesting, use cases covering nearly every aspect of heavy manufacturing — from building virtual factories for real-time factory planning and monitoring, to creating digital twins of aircraft components for immersive training and predictive maintenance, Nvidia’s Omniverse is being used to simulate autonomous vehicles; to enable automotive companies to simulate and validate complex driving scenarios without the need for physical testing. 

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Eicher Motors Limited (EML) – the listed parent of Royal Enfield apart from being a partner in Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a joint venture commercial vehicle unit with Volvo – has reported its best ever Q2 FY2024-25 with a revenue of INR 42.63 billion from operations. It was INR 41.15 billion in the corresponding period of FY2023-24.  
The EBITDA during the respective period was INR 10.88 million as compared to INR 10.87 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Profit After Tax was INR 11 billion, an increase of 8.3 percent as compared to INR 10.16 billion during the same period last year. 
During the quarter, Eicher Group company Royal Enfield recorded sales of 2,25,317 motorcycles as compared to 2,29,496 motorcycles sold during the same period in FY2023-24. 
For Q2 FY 2024-25, VECV’s revenue from operations was INR 55.38 billion, up by 8.0 percent over the previous year’s revenue of INR 51.26 billion.  EBITDA for the second quarter was INR 3.95 billion as compared to INR 4.02 billion last year. 
Profit After Tax (PAT) stood at INR 2.09 billion as against INR 1.87 billion last year. VECV recorded sales of 20,774 vehicles in the second quarter over 19,551 vehicles last year. 
Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director, Eicher Motors Ltd, mentioned, “During this quarter, we have continued to sustain the momentum both at Royal Enfield and VECV. At EICMA, earlier this month, we launched two motorcycles on our 650-Twin platform; the Bear 650, and the Classic 650. In addition to this, Royal Enfield marked its foray into electric mobility with a new EV brand - the Flying Flea. With an intent to disrupt and grow the electric motorcycle segment, we are approaching it with the same singularity, focus and unconventionality with which we have grown and energized the global mid-size segment over the last several years. Under the Flying Flea we will have a portfolio of differentiated electric motorcycles for city+ mobility. On the commercial vehicle front, VE Commercial Vehicles delivered its best Q2 ever, with strengthened market shares in truck segments. This is commendable against the backdrop of lower industry volumes as compared to Q2 of last year.”
B. Govindarajan, CEO, Royal Enfield and Whole-time Director of EML, said, "This quarter we launched two stellar motorcycles - the Guerrilla 450 and the 2024 Classic 350 in an all-new avatar and response to both these motorcycles has been remarkable. We have also made significant progress on expanding and strengthening our footprint outside India as we debuted the brand in Bangladesh with our new flagship store in Dhaka, and a manufacturing and assembly unit in the country. We are also setting up a second CKD in Brazil early next year. Basis the strong legwork that we put in during Q2 this year, we were able to achieve a very special milestone for Royal Enfield in terms of our festive sales performance in October. We outperformed all our previous monthly sales performance and achieved over 1,00,000 sales in a single month. These initiatives underscore our commitment to our long-term strategic goals and to continue delivering pure motorcycling experiences across the globe.” 
Speaking on the performance, Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO, VECV, said, “VECV delivered its highest ever second quarter sales during Q2 FY25 growing 6.2 percent over Q2 FY24 and attaining leadership in the Light and Medium Duty (LMD) segment during the quarter. This growth was against a drop in CV industry volumes of 10.8 percent in the same period and stands as a testament to our broad product range backed by fast-expanding network coverage focused on delivering uptime to customers. Margins remained under pressure in a competitive market as we successfully continued to invest in growing our heavy-duty truck presence. We took another step in our sustainability journey, signing a MoU for deployment of 500 Eicher Pro 6055 LNG trucks.”
Royal Enfield forayed into the EV space by announcing the launch of its completely new electric vehicle brand, Flying Flea at EICMA show in Milan, Italy, recently. 
The debut featured two models – the Classic-styled Flying Flea C6 and the Scrambler-styled Flying Flea S6. 
The two-wheeler company also revisited its legacy with two new models on the 650 Twin platform – the Bear 650 (a robust scrambler, designed for riders who follow their instincts, featuring versatile capabilities to enhance the riding experience) and the Classic 650 powered by the celebrated 650 Twin engine for a ride that is both swift and elegant. 
Strengthening its global footprint, Royal Enfield, in n the SAARC region, commenced operations of its Manufacturing Unit (Category 2) and flagship showroom in Bangladesh. The facility will engage in local production and assembly of four flagship models – Hunter 350, Meteor 350, Classic 350 and Bullet 350 specifically for the Bangladesh market. 
Royal Enfield has announced its intent to set up a new CKD unit in Brazil by January 2025 which will help diversify its operations and expand its presence in the automotive market.