L&T inks JV agreement with Howden

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Howden have signed a Joint Venture (JV) to design, engineer, manufacture and supply axial fans and air pre-heaters to Indian thermal power plants ranging between 100 MW to 1200 MW. These products form vital components of energy efficient thermal power plants.

he JV will invest around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1000 million) for setting up of the industrial facility and related infrastructure. The manufacturing unit will be setup in Hazira, Gujarat, and its operations are expected to commence in 2011. This strategic partnership allows L&T to join forces with a global technology leader, and offers Howden access to the fast growing Indian power plant equipment market.

The establishment of the JV represents a further strengthening of capabilities of L&T Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of L&T, which provides a one stop-solution for the Indian power generation sector.

L&T also has joint ventures with MHI for the manufacturing of Super Critical Boilers, Steam Turbines and Generators. The manufacture of fans and air-heaters augments L&T Power’s portfolio of products from its own operations and operations of its existing joint ventures. With the combination of these three joint ventures, L&T Power will have a distinct edge in the market for power plants.

The joint venture agreement was signed by Ravi Uppal, MD & CEO, L&T Power and Mr Bob Cleland, CEO – Howden Global in Mumbai in the presence of the A M Naik, Chairman and Managing Director, L&T.

Source : Business Standard.  04/05/10

 

M&M ties up with Mitsubishi for farm equipment

India’s largest tractor manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) today signed a technical license agreement with Mitsubishi Agriculture Machinery Company, Japan, for transfer of agricultural machinery technology.The agriculture machinery technology is being licensed to M&M Farm Equipment Sectors’ (FES) Applitrac business for manufacturing Mitsubishi’s products in India. These machinery will be sold under the Mahindra brand name in India as well as in export markets like China and the Saarc countries.

To start with, M&M will produce the rice transplant machine, priced at Rs 1.75 lakh from its plant in Nagpur. The company is making an investment of Rs 15 crore towards the venture and intends to sell 1,000 units of the machine this year, while the target is expected to go up to 5,000 units per year in the next two to three years.

These machines reduce man-hours while improving costs savings. According to estimates, the rice transplantor can save 30 per cent of costs while employing only three persons against 10-12 persons under manual conditions.

Mitsubishi also partners M&M is the US where it makes compact tractors for the Indian company and sells them under the M&M brand name.

The Applitrac business where M&M sells all products other than tractors, such as harvesters and other machinery, currently contributes Rs 100 crore to M&M’s FES revenue. This is expected to grow to Rs 500-600 crore in the next five years, according to Anjanikumar Choudhari, president-M&M FES.

Further, both companies are also exploring collaboration in the area of tractors. Mitsubishi has expertise in making compact and low-power tractors, whereas Mahindra makes bigger and high-capacity tractor.

“We have a long-term relationship with Mitsubishi. We are discussing a variety of subjects for transfer of technology and design. India is a large market and there can be ways for further collaboration with Mitsubishi”, said Choudhari.

Source : Business Standard. 12/02/10

INOX India acquires majority stake in Cryogenic Vessel of US

Ahmedabad: The Vadodara-based INOX India Ltd, India’s largest cryogenic engineering company, has acquired majority interest for an undisclosed financial consideration in Cryogenic Vessel Alternatives (CVA), the world’s largest manufacturer of cryogenic transportation equipment.

Together, the entity would become the second largest company, offering cryogenic storage, transportation and distribution products for the global market, a company official said today.

“We have acquired controlling stake (more than 51 per cent) in CVA on December 21, 2009, and would consolidate their balance-sheets. Our headquarters would continue to be in Vadodara but our operations will now span India, the US, China, Turkey and Canada. Besides, we are also looking at Europe on whether we can acquire a company there too next year,” Mr Parag Kulkarni, Director and CEO, INOX India, told Business Line.

Revenue base

INOX India has funded acquisition of the US-based company, whose revenues were around $60 million (Rs 270 crore) last year, from internal accruals, he said. About 60 per cent of INOX India’s revenues, totalling Rs 240.90 crore in 2008-09, comes from exports.

INOX India would also be evaluating any further investments in terms of synergising the two companies’ functioning by setting up new plants.

Role for CVA owners

Mr Chris Carr, Mr Hector Villarreal and Mr Dean Corbin, erstwhile owners of CVA, will continue to play leadership roles, leverage the significant geographical market and product synergies resulting from this new partnership.

INOX India is a leading global player with product offerings spanning the entire cryogenic value chain including storage, transportation and distribution. Its market presence extends across nearly 100 countries and its product range is used in various industries such as industrial gases, LNG distribution, CryoBio medical and scientific research in space, nuclear and superconductivity technologies.

CVA has manufacturing and repair facilities for cryogenic transportation equipment at Mont Belvieu, Texas, US, with presence across Canada, China and Turkey.

Complementarity

While INOX India leads the market in stationary storage tanks, CVA specialises in large cryogenic transport tanks and mobile oil and gas field pumping units. This complementary market leadership, know-how and product range between the two companies will strengthen their current positions around the world, Mr Kulkarni said.

Both INOX India and CVA will continue to offer their customers products and services, while enhancing their current product offerings globally. The synergies of both these companies and the reinforced expertise will create a technical knowledge pool and provide a platform for sustainable growth, he added.

Established in 1992, INOX India Ltd is part of the INOX Group, with revenues of Rs 2,014.47 crore in 2008-09 and which has interest in diverse businesses including industrial gases, refrigerant gases, fluoro-chemicals, renewable energy, and entertainment. It is also one of the five top manufacturers of disposable refrigerant gas cylinders globally. Its three manufacturing in India are located at Kalol and Kandla, both in Gujarat, and Silvassa, capital of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

One of INOX Group companies, INOX Leisure Ltd, is listed on the BSE where its share price closed at Rs 63.80 on the BSE on Tuesday.

Source : The Hindu Business Line   30/12/09

BHEL develops new state-of-the-art facility at Bhopal

Mumbai: State-run Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has developed a new state-of-the-art Ultra High Voltage (UHV) transformer manufacturing facility at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, as part of its capacity expansion plan of 15,000 megawatt (MW) per annum.

The new UHV transformer block has a dust free and controlled atmosphere, air conditioned bays for winding works, pressurised bay for core building and final assembly, EOT cranes for lifting loads up to 450 tonne, isostatic pressing device for windings, air cushion transport system for movement of equipment & machinery and attached UHV laboratory for testing transformers up to 1,200 kV class, the company said in its statement.

This facility will enable the company to produce an additional 12,000 MVA of transformers per annum.

Following this development, the total installed transformer manufacturing capacity at the company’s Bhopal plant will go up to 30,000 MVA per annum while the total capacity of BHEL including its Jhansi plant will go up to 45,000 MVA, the statement added.

The navaratna PSU has already enhanced its manufacturing capacity to 10,000 MW per annum and is further expanding it to 15,000 MW per annum. It is also working towards increasing it further to 20,000 MW by 2011-12.

India’s largest engineering and heavy electrical equipment manufacturing enterprise had posted a net profit of Rs 857.88 crore for the September quarter against Rs 615.77 crore for the same quarter last fiscal, up 39.32%.

Source : livemint.  18/11/09

ArcelorMittal to use India, China as sourcing hub

Kolkata: ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer, plans to make India and China the sourcing hub for its greenfield projects equipment to bring down overall costs.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), ArcelorMittal Design & Engineering Centre CEO Pierre Jonette said: “Our main objective is to bring down the total project cost by 20-22 per cent across all the green projects. We have internally decided to increase sourcing from local low cost destinations for most of our greenfield projects.”

Jonette pointed out the cost of equipment in India and China were about 30-40 per cent cheaper than in Europe and other markets. Also, there was a greater scope for localisation in India and China compared to other markets, he added.

Cost of equipment roughly constituted half of the total project cost. India stands to be the biggest beneficiary as the two of the biggest greenfield projects of ArcelorMittal are being planned in India.

The company has plans to build two steel plants each with a capacity of 12 million tonnes each in the state of Orissa and Jharkhand. The two projects are delayed because of government approvals, the targetted schedule for both the projects is end of 2013 or beginning 2014.

Despite the delay Jonette said, there would be no downsizing. The company is still working on the capex, product-mix, lay out etc.

The company also had new projects in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Brazil, he said. While from India the company was looking to buy equipment such as boilers, steel structures, infrastructure, from China, it was looking at sourcing blast furnace, coke oven and sinters, said Jonette. The in-house dedicated design and engineering centre of ArcelorMittal (AMDEC), which was inaugurated last year will help in greater optimisation of resources and downsizing cost.

“The slowdown has opened up more opportunities for AMDEC. We are receiving a lot of requests for technical support from other ArcelorMittal plants around the world. For now, we will be working exclusively for ArcelorMittal projects. Later on, if we obtain a good name and we might be open to consulting others as well,” Jonette said. AMDEC is primarily responsible for making plan layout, designs, equipment sourcing, etc for all the ArcelorMittal projects. AMDEC at present has a headcount of 60 people in the Kolkata office. The target is to scale it up to 200-250 in another 3-5 years.

Source : Business Standard 10/08/09