Ravi Kant in New Delhi on Wednesday. Picture by Rajesh Kumar

New Delhi, Dec. 14: Tata Motors is ‘shrinking’ its vendor base to maintain the quality of the materials supplied.

“We are looking at shrinking our vendor base by filtering out low quality suppliers. The idea is to go along with the key vendors,” Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said.

Meanwhile, the company today launched the Tata Novus in the heavy commercial vehicle range.

It has launched the 300-hp tippers, which are priced between Rs 36 lakh and Rs 39 lakh, significantly lower than similar models from foreign rivals like Tatra and Volvo, which are priced above Rs 45 lakh.

“We have a 30 per cent localisation level on Novus, which is expected to go up to 60 per cent in the next one year,” Kant said, hinting that prices may decline as the indigenisation levels increased.

The company has introduced the latest range in partnership with its South Korean subsidiary Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, formed after it acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company in 2004.

Kant said contribution of exports to the total revenues of Tata Motors is increasing as the company entered new markets as part of its strategy of going global. “Exports are expected to be 17 per cent in value terms for us now against less than 5 per cent three to four years back,” he said.

The Novus range, which was launched in Korea earlier this year, is already being exported to 15 countries. “As much as 40 per cent of the production from Korea is being exported,” said Kant.

In India, the company is manufacturing the range at Jamshedpur where it has an annual capacity of 6,000 units.