Global cos to scale up sourcing from India in aerospace, defence

Bengaluru: Airbus, Rolls Royce, Safran and Collins Aerospace are looking to significantly scale up sourcing from India, key officials of the four global companies said on Thursday.

Speaking at a panel discussion on “India at the Core: Shaping the Future of Global A & D Sourcing” at the Global Investors’ Meet ‘Invest Karnataka 2025’ here, they sounded bullish on India’s prospects in the global aerospace and defence supply chain.

Michel Narchi, Head of International Operations, Airbus, said the level of maturity this sector has gained in India in the past few years is really incredible and amazing, adding, his company is keen to capitalise on the partnership with India.

“If I compare where we were only five years back, where we have reached today on the supply chain part... this partnership has doubled the volume in the past five years...today we can proudly say that India is contributing more than a billion Euros in the overall supply chain of Airbus,” he said. Narchi added that Airbus anticipates this figure to increase steadily and strongly going forward.

Jean-Noel Mahieu, EVP Operations, Safran Electronics and Defense, also talked about strengthening partnership with India. Huw Morgan, Senior Vice-President, Aerospace Procurement, Rolls Royce, said his company wants to grow the long-standing relationship with India. “We are looking to double our sourcing in region over the next five years,” he said.

Savyasachi Srinivas, Vice-President, Engineering, at Collins Aerospace, said Collins does about USD half a billion of exports from India annually and he anticipates it to signficantly increase over the next few years.

Srinivasan Dwarakanath, Director General, Aerospace India Association, and former CEO and MD of Airbus India, said both Boeing and Airbus have in their global market forecast stated that over the next 20 years, there is a need for more than 42,000 aircraft or new planes.

India has ordered a significant number of aircraft which is also going to result in an uptick in the global supply chain, Dwarakanath said. In 2023, the value of the global aerospace supply chain was about USD 180 billion and by 2033 it will go up to USD 250 billion. In 2023, India ordered the maximum number of aircraft. Despite fuelling growth in the global aviation market, Indian aerospace supply chain contributes only about one per cent of global supply chain. “This is disproportionately below the value of the import of the aircraft and components. Aerospace exports annually from India is as little as USD two billion,” Dwarakanath pointed out.