new delhi after a lull of two years positive sentiment has returned to the automotive component industry and companies are considering investment in capacity building as they expect demand to return component supplier uno minda group is looking at expansion we are quite bullish and see that the market has bottomed out and a revival is around the corner chairman and managing director nirmal minda said i hope that soon our capacities will be fully utilised and we need to have additional capacity nirmal minda is considering a new plant in gujarat to manufacture alloy wheels advt another component maker national engineering industries ltd a ck birla group company is investing rs 500 crore towards setting up of a new plant also in gujarat the component industry had been struggling for the past two years due to subdued demand as auto makers cut back on production in a slowing economy the vehicle manufacturing industry is now showing signs of a pickup car sales have grown for four straight months through august while volumes of commercial vehicles have turned positive in the past month for the first time in twoandhalf years capacity utilisation in the auto component segment which has come down to 60 is expected to rebound to 8090 in the next twothree years in 201314 the segments total revenue declined by 115 from a year earlier to 351 billion leading also to major job cuts during this period the government has instilled confidence in the market with assurance of positive policy changes we hope that by the fiscal year 201415 capacity utilisation will go up to 90 harish lakshman president of the automotive component manufacturers association of india acma said on the sidelines of the industry bodys 54th annual conference here vikram kirloskar vice chairman of toyota kirloskar motor and president of the society of india automobiles manufactures said the component industry should be prepared for an uptake in vehicle manufacturing so that it doesnt suffer from capacity constraint when demand picks up offering his support heavy industries minister anant geete said the government is committed to ensuring positive and conducive environment for auto manufacturers so that they can compete with their global rivals on extension of the current excise duty concessions beyond december gete said the government is already discussing the matter we will take the decision at an appropriate time he said advt under the current scheme introduced earlier this year small cars scooters motorcycles and commercial vehicles attract an 8 excise duty compared with 12 previously the duty on large cars is 24 compared with 27 earlier and on midsize cars 20 down from 24 previously a joint report of acma and mckinsey forecast automotive component to be a 100 billion industry by 2020 compared with 351 billion now the report forecasts revenue to come from both local sales and exports currently india is ranked 22 among global component exporting countries china is at the third spot on the list led by germany and the