Indian conglomerate Tata has flatly denied that it has spoken to or has any intention of doing work for Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer.
The president of India, Pratibha Patil, has been in Brazil this week as part of a two-week state visit to Latin America and some of the Indian journalists accompanying her have written reports, citing unnamed sources, as saying Tata has entered into talks with Embraer with a view to producing Embraer aircraft in India.
But a spokesperson for Tata Sons in Mumbai says in an emailed response to ATI: “The Tata Group wishes to clarify that the information is completely untrue and baseless.”
Embraer Asia Pacific managing director, Orlando Neto, says that as part of general company policy he is unable to comment publicly on negotiations with potential customers or potential partners.
Airlines in India today mostly operate Airbus, Boeing and ATR aircraft but Embraer has Indian carrier Paramount Airways as a customer and according to Flight’s ACAS database this carrier operates five Embraer regional jets.
India is seen to be a strong potential sales market for Embraer and in recent months some politicians in India have pointed out that China has succeeded in generating investment from foreign aerospace companies.
Embraer, for example, assembles Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet aircraft in China under a joint venture with China’s Harbin Aircraft.
The politicians say that because India is a large buyer of military and commercial aircraft the country should be doing more to try to get foreign aerospace companies to invest in the country.
Tata Sons is the holder of the Tata trademark and oversees many of the Tata group companies.
The Indian conglomerate is one of India’s wealthiest and most high-profile companies with businesses in disparate industry sectors such as car manufacturing, financial services, IT and tea.
It is famous for being the company that founded Air India – a business that was later nationalised – and it owns internationally recognised brands such as Tetley tea as well as the Jaguar and Land Rover car businesses.
Tata in recent months has also made major push into the aerospace sector. In February it signed a memorandum of understanding with Sikorsky to manufacture cabins for Sikorsky S-92 helicopters as well as a memorandum of understanding with Israel Aerospace Industries to manufacture defence and aerospace products.
In February it also signed an agreement with Boeing to establish a joint venture in India that would make components for Boeing military aircraft and later possibly commercial aircraft. In addition, that same month ATI reported that Tata Motors would be making titanium and composite floor beams for Boeing 787s.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
