Aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW) has signed multi-year supply agreements worth more than $40 million with Indian suppliers as it works towards increasing its annual sourcing from India to $150 million by 2030.
According to a news report from businessline, Ashish Saraf, Vice President and Country Head of Pratt & Whitney, said the agreements cover suppliers including Bharat Forge, IAMPL, Godrej and Indo MIM. He added that the company remains on track to achieve its 2030 sourcing target.
The agreements follow a recent supplier event aimed at strengthening collaboration and improving manufacturing capabilities across the supply chain.
Pratt & Whitney plans to expand sourcing across the manufacturing value chain, from raw materials to finished components. This includes castings, forgings, bars, billets and machined components. The company is also supporting suppliers in developing capabilities in these areas and in specialised manufacturing processes.
Its parent company, RTX, currently sources more than $500 million worth of components and services from India annually. RTX has also invested $240 million in the country over the past five years to establish engineering, operations, training and digital facilities.
Saraf has called for a sector-specific production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to encourage the manufacture of high-value aerospace components and increase the localisation of critical supply chains in India. He suggested a phased approach to help companies build capabilities, scale up production and attract investments.
Other areas requiring support include easier access to capital for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), technology upgrades, faster certification and regulatory approvals, and better infrastructure around aerospace manufacturing clusters.
Targeted support for research and development, workforce training and industry-academia collaboration could also help strengthen domestic aerospace manufacturing capabilities.
However, manufacturing critical aircraft engine components requires specialised materials, advanced production technologies, skilled manpower and compliance with stringent certification requirements. Suppliers must undergo years of capability development, testing and validation before their components can be approved for use in global aerospace supply chains.
Limited domestic capabilities in certain materials, processes and certification requirements continue to leave parts of India’s aerospace sector dependent on external sources. These dependencies can expose manufacturing programmes to geopolitical, logistical and market disruptions, potentially affecting production schedules.
Pratt & Whitney continues to evaluate opportunities to develop products in India and increase local sourcing as domestic suppliers strengthen their capabilities and expand their participation in global aerospace programmes.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Manufacturing Tales staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
