A Factory in Newtownards, Co Down, which makes fuel lines for car manufacturers like Ford and General Motors, has become involved in a joint venture project in Northern India. The plant is owned by the vehicle components division of the UK multinational McKechnie plc, a global business with a turnover of £600 million sterling. Its vehicle components division (MVC) is the largest sector of its business, with annual sales of around £130 million.

It manufactures fuel and brake lines, and wheel trims at a number of satellite plants throughout Europe, of which Newtownards was the first to be established.

It was opened three years ago to supply plastic fuel lines for the Ford plant in west Belfast, and now has a turnover of around £4 million. It has proved so efficient that it is now turning out products for Ford and Volkswagen plants throughout Europe.

"We are very pleased with the performance at Newtownards," said MVC's business development director, Mr Robert Davidson. "It has achieved very stringent international quality standards, and not a single defective product has been returned by a customer for almost 18 months."

The plant manager, Mr Michael Keating, is currently in the university town of Poona, near Bombay, to set up a similar operation there. This will supply the Indian car and truck industry, which is growing at the rate of 27 per cent a year. Mr Keating said the Newtownards plant would supply the machinery, components, and technical back-up to the Indian factory, which is due to go into production next month.

"It will be a small operation to start with,", Mr Keating said, "of around 14,000 square feet, employing 25 people. But we have already signed a deal with Telco, India's biggest truck manufacturer, which produces around 100,000 vehicles a year, and we are also negotiating with a scooter manufacturer, where the potential is for one million fuel lines a year."

McKechnie's partner in the joint venture project is the Indian company Exotech Industries.