Chassis and tubing manufacturer KLT Automotive and Tubular Products South Africa (KLT Automotive SA), has celebrated the production of the 800 000th Ford Ranger chassis at its Hammanskraal plant.

The KLT Group is a chassis and tubing manufacturer in India, with customers such as Tata, Mahindra, Daimler, Ashok Leyland and Volvo/Eicher. It operates 11 plants worldwide. 

KLT Automotive SA, a subsidiary of the KLT Group, currently employs more than 700 people and is the only domestic chassis manufacturer outside of the operations of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs, or vehicle manufacturers).

“Ten years ago KLT set up a greenfield, dedicated manufacturing plant to supply Ford with chassis, and is the exclusive chassis supplier for Ford Rangers built in South Africa. Vehicles built with chassis from this plant have been exported worldwide,” says KLT Automotive SA CEO Ashok Thakur.

“This has enabled KLT to successfully create a local manufacturing ecosystem that competes with the best of the world in terms of skills, employment, equipment, production capabilities and capacity.

“Production starts from a basic steel coil, from which the complete chassis is built, comprising over 200 components. The plant has 29 presses and over 130 welding robots.”

“We are committed to increase capacity,” adds Thakur. “Over the next three years we are targeting a doubling of our business. Growth will be both organic and inorganic. Going forward, KLT is fully committed to South Africa and is actively diversifying our customer base.”

KLT Group chairperson and MD Jubin Thakkar believes that recent regulatory changes relating to local content on vehicles assembled in South Africa provide an opportunity for auto component companies to grow their business.

“While all OEMs are aggressively looking at increasing their local content, KLT is already in discussions with five of the seven auto manufacturing companies [based in South Africa] for more localisation. We have locally created skills through which we are able to produce components with high local content.”

Thakkar says KLT remains committed to strengthening its footprint in South Africa and other African countries, noting that it will continue to invest in new technologies and skills development as it grows its African business interests.