Thyssenkrupp Industries India (TKII), an industrial plants and systems company, is looking at a 2x growth in its revenues in the next couple of years. After doubling revenues in the last four years from Rs 1,200 crore to Rs 2,500 crore at present, the company expects the growth trajectory to continue this year. The company has its highest order book backlog of Rs 5,000 crore.
“We are bullish about growth in India due to a positive business environment and a strong focus on infrastructure capex by the government despite the complex global environment,” Vivek Bhatia, managing director & CEO, Thyssenkrupp Industries India, said.
The company’s growth has been on the back of good demand generated by the government’s infrastructure spending and policy push in the mining, sugar and energy sector. TKII is into the manufacturing of sugar plants and machinery, open cast mining and bulk material handling systems, cement plants and machinery, boilers and power plants.
According to Bhatia, the company consciously moved away from competing on costs to competing on value and from projects to products. Discipline was needed in the EPC business to walk away if the price was not right and it was possible to do this in a growing market, he said.
This contributed to the highest-ever revenues and highest-ever profit. Many EPC companies have not survived and have gone out of business while the company gained market share, he points out.
There has been a significant capital expansion by major miners with 145-plus new licences awarded for various commodities and these were at various stages of planning. They would all require equipment for excavating, crushing and conveying over the next three to four years, Bhatia said.
The mining industry would need a shift from the traditional truck and shovel method to mechanised continuous mining systems which has the potential to improve productivity, he said. According to Bhatia, this process has just started and it was a positive trend for the industry.
Bhatia said TKII has a broad range of technologies available to provide a continuous mining system with a minimal environmental impact, reduce opex by 20-30%, operate safely and get payback in five years. These mines can work round the clock along with conveyor systems without any intermediate handling and lower the life cycle costs. The major costs in the present system of mining in India largely consist of drilling, blasting, fuel and consumables. With the adoption of modern systems, the cost of drilling and blasting can be avoided and opex costs significantly reduced by employing electrically operated continuous systems.
Thyssenkrupp has two manufacturing units in India at Pune and Hyderabad, and is celebrating 75 years of business in India.
