Ø India Remains Fastest-Growing Among Large
Economies; Auto Sector Posts High Double-Digit Growth
Ø U.S. Ambassador to India H.E. Sergio Gor
Says U.S.-India Automotive Partnership At “Historic High Point”, Invites Indian
Auto Component Makers To Invest In U.S.
Ø HM Trade Commissioner Harjinder Kang Highlights
CETA’s Tariff-Free Access For Auto Components, Deepening India-UK Automotive Partnership
Ø Goyal Highlights Government Initiatives
To Strengthen Auto Sector Supply Chains; Invites Industry To Plug Into New Industrial
Parks
Ø India-US Critical Mineral Partnership
To Strengthen Resilient Supply Chains, Support Auto Component Industry’s USD 500
Billion Global Ambition
·
India’s auto sector is recording high double-digit growth, while the country
remains the fastest-growing among major economies with 7.8% GDP growth.
·
India’s auto-component industry has nearly $50 billion
in international trade, divided broadly between imports and exports.
·
Goyal urged auto-component manufacturers to transform
local businesses into global companies, expand overseas manufacturing and move
up the value chain.
·
India’s nine recent FTAs cover 38 developed countries
with around $60 trillion GDP, creating significant market-access opportunities
for auto-component exporters.
·
The India-UK CETA, effective 15 July 2026,
provides tariff-free access for auto components, supporting deeper bilateral
supply chains and joint ventures.
·
U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor described U.S.-India
automotive cooperation as being at a “historic high point” and invited Indian
component makers to invest in the U.S. through assembly plants, R&D centres and distribution networks.
·
Government initiatives in speciality
steel, technical textiles, semiconductors and industrial parks are aimed at
strengthening domestic auto-component supply chains.
·
Goyal proposed dedicated plug-and-play industrial parks/parks
for auto components, including potential U.S.-India partnership parks.
·
The India-U.S. Critical Minerals Partnership and
Pax Silica initiative are expected to improve access to critical minerals
and build resilient, diversified supply chains.
·
The industry was urged to accelerate indigenisation,
reduce supply-chain vulnerabilities, adopt AI and advanced technologies, and develop
high-value integrated products.
·
Goyal stressed greater focus on vehicle safety, customised vehicles and technology-driven quality control,
particularly for developed markets.
·
The government and industry were urged to make vehicle
scrappage financially attractive, creating demand for new-generation and cleaner
vehicles.
·
The auto-component industry is targeting a $500 billion
global footprint, with international investment, stronger supply chains and
global market expansion seen as key drivers.
[ABS News Service/03.09.2026]
Addressing the 66th Annual Session of
the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) in New Delhi, Union Minister
of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal on 2 September, 2026 called upon the auto
component industry to transform local businesses into global businesses, expand
manufacturing footprints across developed countries, strengthen supply-chain resilience
and move up the value chain as India seeks to deepen its integration with global
markets.
Mr. Goyal said the industry’s international
trade was nearly USD 50 billion, evenly divided between imports and exports. He
said business prospers when it looks globally and imports can also play an important
role in the economic progress of a country, while clarifying that this should not
be taken as an encouragement to increase imports.
He said there had been a commitment to
widen the gap between imports and exports, but this had not yet started, and called
for much greater international investment and international business emerging from
ACMA and its membership in the years ahead.
The Minister said the industry had benefited
from collaborations over the years and had established the ability to produce quality
goods in India at globally competitive price points. He called upon the industry
to now expand its manufacturing footprint across the world and establish a presence
in developed countries.
Mr. Goyal highlighted India’s growing
market access through nine trade agreements finalised in the last four to five years
under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. He said these
agreements covered 38 developed countries, collectively representing a GDP of USD
60 trillion. He said the Free Trade Agreements concluded prior to 2014 collectively
accounted for a GDP of USD 10 trillion at today’s value, while the nine agreements
concluded under the present Government in the last four and a half years provide
two-way market access to economies representing a USD 60 trillion GDP.
He said these agreements covered prosperous
countries with high GDPs and high per capita GDPs, offering less competition and
greater complementarity with Indian industry. Mr. Goyal also acknowledged ACMA’s
role in India’s Free Trade Agreement negotiations, saying that the organisation
had consistently sought zero-duty access for the Indian auto component sector while
also seeking reciprocal opening of the Indian market. He said the industry was capable
of taking on the best in the world and was ready to meet global competition.
Referring to the theme of the session,
“Beyond Resilience, managing uncertainty to creating new avenues, deeper supply
chains”, Mr. Goyal said it was particularly relevant in a world marked by uncertainties,
challenges and considerable churn.
The Minister said that amid global turmoil,
India had continued to stay the course and remained the fastest-growing among the
large economies of the world. “The naysayers can say what they want, but 7.8% growth
is a reality,” he said.
Highlighting the growth across sectors,
Mr. Goyal pointed out that ACMA was growing at a scorching double-digit rate and
the auto sector was growing at a high double-digit rate. He said five million passenger
cars were expected to be sold this year. The Minister said the cars were being bought
and were not merely being stocked. He also referred to electric vehicles, noting
that some electric vehicles now had a six-month waiting period.
He pointed out that the steel sector was
also growing at a scorching pace and India was importing more steel than it exported
because domestic demand was so high. He said the auto component industry was contributing
significantly to this demand.
Mr. Goyal highlighted various Government
programmes aimed at strengthening industrial capacity and supply-chain resilience.
He said the support provided to the auto component industry to achieve scale and
to speciality steel manufacturing to produce in India the steels required by the
sector directly related to the industry.
He also highlighted the relevance of the
technical textile PLI for the auto component industry, given its requirement for
technical textiles, and said support to the semiconductor industry was intended
to bring resilience to auto component supply chains.
The Minister said the Government was creating
new industrial parks, with 20 smart cities and industrial cities already underway.
He invited the industry to participate in these opportunities and also invited countries
to consider establishing enclaves in these parks. “Maybe we should have one of these
parks dedicated to a US-India partnership. Maybe we can have two or three, five
parks, which will be for auto components only. And I can create a plug and play
infrastructure to suit you,” he said.
Mr. Goyal said the cycle of reforms and
further reforms could only move ahead at speed with the support of industry. “We
need your ideas. We need your inputs. We need your demands. We need to know what’s
challenging you, what’s troubling you, how we can help you more,” he said. “We are
a listening government. We want you to be talking,” he said, calling for continued
dialogue between industry and Government.
Mr. Goyal referred to his recent three-hour
engagement with the data centre industry, comprising largely companies from the
United States coming into India in a big way. He said India and the United States
were trusted partners who could support each other in making everything more competitive.
Mr. Goyal said India would soon have a
GCC and Israel FTA once the situation stabilised there. He said India would also
have FTAs with other countries around the world to secure greater access to critical
minerals, which are needed for resilient supply chains.
He highlighted that the United States
and India were working together as partners in a critical mineral partnership. He
also referred to the Pax Sillica initiative launched by
the United States, under which like-minded, democratic, well-meaning and fair-play
countries could work together to ensure that no single geography could weaponise trade.
Mr. Goyal said these developments would
help the auto component industry become a global player as it moved towards its
USD 500 billion industry target.
Before concluding, Mr. Goyal outlined
specific priorities for the industry. He called upon the industry to convert local
businesses into global businesses and, for products where greater supply-chain resilience
was still required, establish an active indigenisation programme to insulate and
protect itself from future black swan events.
He called upon the industry to move up
the value chain and begin delivering integrated, very high-value solutions, including
products that are designed, built and supplied to the world at top quality.
Mr. Goyal also called for greater focus
on safety. He said the industry should not leave safety concerns entirely to the
Government.
The Minister said technology needed to
play a greater role in the auto component sector, including artificial intelligence
for better quality control and better assessment of customer needs. He also referred
to customised vehicles, which were gaining increasing traction in the United States
and Europe, and called for better safety features.
On vehicle scrappage Mr. Goyal said that
the industry and Government needed to make the scrappage of old vehicles a profitable
and valuable proposition for new vehicle buyers.
He emphasised that this could only be
achieved through a shared effort by the Government and the private sector. The Minister
said the Government had attempted to provide value and incentives from its side
and called upon industry to come forward and offer fair value when vehicles were
scrapped, so that a greater market could be created for new-age vehicles.
Addressing the event U.S. Ambassador to
the Republic of India H.E. Sergio Gor highlighted the deepening U.S.-India cooperation
in the automotive sector and said that the relationship stands at a “historic high
point”. He said the two countries are “co-designing the future of mobility together”
and noted India’s auto component industry as a reliable and increasingly sophisticated
partner in strengthening supply chain resilience. He said both governments are working
towards a fair, reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade relationship and highlighted
the progress made, including the trade understanding reached between the two governments.
He also said that Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Mr. Piyush Goyal will
travel to the United States at the end of the month as the United States hosts the
G20 talks.
Mr. Gor highlighted cooperation across
pharmaceuticals, military sales and exercises, IT, data centres and space, and described
the Pax Silica Declaration as a landmark step towards a pro-innovation regulatory
framework, noting that India was among the first countries invited to join. He highlighted
the presence of U.S. companies in India’s automotive ecosystem and Indian companies
in the United States, including Bharat Forge, Sundaram Clayton and Mahindra. He
invited Indian auto component manufacturers to explore investment in the United
States through greenfield assembly, R&D centres and distribution networks, and
noted that the U.S. Embassy in India came first among embassies globally, with $24
billion in new investment into the United States.
In his address, Trade Commissioner for
South Asia and British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India Harjinder Kang
highlighted the strengthening India-UK relationship and said automotive and future
mobility are central to the UK’s advanced manufacturing capabilities. He highlighted
the India-UK Vision 2035, the UK’s modern industrial strategy and the India-UK CETA,
which came into force on 15 July 2026. He said 99% of UK tariff lines and 90% of
Indian tariff lines have been reduced to zero or very low duties, with streamlined
customs and border processes to facilitate trade and business.
He said CETA will deepen supply chains
and enable joint ventures and partnerships, with automotive component manufacturers
gaining tariff-free access to each other’s markets. He highlighted the UK’s strengths
in advanced engineering, innovation and zero-emission vehicle technologies, including
electric motors, batteries, hydrogen solutions, lightweight composites and software-defined
vehicle systems.