Forging India’s Wheels Since 1946: Inside M M Forgings, Chennai’s Quiet Global Giant

Karishma Shah
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Karishma Shah
Co-founder of Exceptional Technology. Karishma leads editorial and operations for exceptional.technology — the showcase of the best of Indian technology and engineering — and co-runs Excep...
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Every truck that hauls freight across India, every tractor that tills its fields and every car that rolls off an Indian assembly line depends on parts most people never see — forged steel components shaped under thousands of tonnes of pressure, built to survive a lifetime of stress. In Chennai, one company has been making those parts for nearly eight decades, quietly becoming one of India’s largest exporters of forgings in its range: M M Forgings Limited.

The company’s roots go back to 1946, when it began life as Madras Motors Limited. Renamed M M Forgings, it has grown from those early days into a forging powerhouse headquartered at SVK Towers in Chennai’s Guindy industrial estate, with plants across Tamil Nadu and a customer list spanning India, North America and Europe.

What M M Forgings makes

M M Forgings specialises in closed die hot forgings in carbon, alloy, micro-alloy and stainless steels, supplied in raw, semi-machined and fully machined stages. The company says its forgings range from just 0.20 kg to 60 kg — small, precise parts that carry enormous loads.

Its product range reads like a catalogue of the automobile itself: front axle beams, crankshafts, steering knuckles, connecting rods, yokes, flanges, spindles, hubs and high-pressure valves. These serve five segments — passenger cars, commercial vehicles, agricultural equipment, off-highway machinery and high-pressure valves — which is why the company’s parts end up in vehicles and machines across the world.

The company’s own description of itself says it best: with a presence across India and close to its customers, M M Forgings positions itself as a one-stop shop for the closed die forging needs of both domestic and international customers.

Plants built for scale

The manufacturing footprint tells the story of that scale. Plant 1 at Singampunari in Tamil Nadu runs mechanical presses from 1,600 to 4,000 tonnes, making connecting rods, sockets, spring seats and valves. Plant 2 at Viralimalai handles the heavy end, with presses up to 8,000 tonnes producing front axle beams, crankshafts and knuckles. Plant 4 at Padappai near Chennai combines forging and machining for spindles, flange housings and sockets.

Machining is a strength in its own right: the company says it runs more than 300 VMCs, CNC machines and special-purpose machines across its locations, including dedicated lines for machining knuckles and front axle beams. Its wholly owned subsidiary DVS Industries at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand specialises in crankshaft machining, with capacity for 30,000 crankshafts a month.

Beyond forgings, the company runs wind farms and solar plants across southern Tamil Nadu, and an industrial automation division in Chennai that builds low-cost automation and special-purpose machines, heavy fabrications and material-handling equipment.

A business of serious scale

The numbers reflect eight decades of steady growth. In its 79th annual report, for the year ended 31 March 2025, the company reported forging sales of ₹1,462.71 crore and total income of ₹1,506.51 crore, with profit after tax of ₹136.30 crore. Exports form a large part of the business, with the company’s forgings reaching OEMs in North America and Europe — a global footprint that has made it, in the company’s words, one of the largest exporters of forgings in India in its product range.

That export strength sits alongside deep domestic roots: commercial vehicle makers, tractor companies and car manufacturers across India rely on its parts, and its plants sit close to the country’s automotive heartland.

For a company that began in 1946 and still forges the parts that keep India’s wheels turning today, M M Forgings is a shining example of Indian manufacturing at its finest — experienced, precise and built to last.

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Co-founder of Exceptional Technology. Karishma leads editorial and operations for exceptional.technology — the showcase of the best of Indian technology and engineering — and co-runs Excep Technology, a Pune-based creative and technology studio.
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