German technology group Freudenberg (Weinheim; www.freudenberg.com) has announced that it is planning a new site in India. The group will begin constructing the production facility near Chennai in autumn 2017. The investment amounts to some EUR 15m and the acquired land consists of more than 56,000 m², with the capacity for further site development. Among other products, the site is to produce sealing solutions.

In the past few years, Chennai, known as "India's Detroit", has become the capital of India’s automotive industry, where more than 40% of automotive production is based. Freudenberg CEO Mohsen Sohi said, "Our development in Asia is both positive and long-term oriented. We are moving closer to our strategic goal of generating one third of our sales in Europe, one third in America and one third in Asia."

Last year, Freudenberg generated sales of EUR 7.9 bn, of which EUR 1.7 bn or about 16.5% was attributable to activities in Asia. In India, Freudenberg’s sales grew 15% in 2016 to some EUR 200m (from EUR 174m in 2015). The increase is largely attributable to its acquisition of German automotive vibration control specialist Vibracoustic (Darmstadt; www.vibracoustic.com).