Rakesh Sharma, Director, AMCL Machinery Ltd shares his view with Sandeep Sharma about his company, product portfolio, core competencies, demand scenario, effective and energy savings solutions, features of Vertical Roller Pre-Grinding Mill, R&D initiatives, impact of demonetisation and what needs to be done for boosting the Cement sector growth. Could you tell us about your company,manufacturing base, product portfolio and core competencies? AMCL Machinery Ltd (AMCL) is a group company of Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Limited, a leading manufacturer of container and float glass in the country. AMCL is an ISO-9001:2008 company having a stateof- the-art manufacturing facility at Butibori, Nagpur which is equipped with imported machining centers as well as high precision machineries. The facility is spread over an area of 5000 sq m. In addition to that AMCL has a welldeveloped vendor base to cater to its requirements. AMCL is providing complete solutions in the field of Cement and Raw material grinding. We are undertaking expansion projects and split location grinding units. AMCL is supplying Vertical Roller Pre-Grinding Mill (VRPM) to reduce power consumption and increase the production for small capacity Grinding Mills. AMCL is manufacturing State of the Art Three Lobe Positive Displacement Blowers as per technical knowhow from M/s. Unozawa Gumi Iron & Works, Japan. Our Three Lobe Blowers are known for high efficiency, long service and uniform pressure. The Blowers are commonly used for cement Kilns firing system. AMCL is offering wide range of solutions for the Pneumatic unloading and conveying system for powderd material. We are also manufacturing loose cement Bulkers and Transit Mixers as per knowhow from M/s. Shinmaywa Industries Limited, Japan. AMCL has separate vertical to manufacture and supply Rubber & Tyre Machinery. How did your company fare so far in the current financial year, in terms of business achieved, operating profit and no. of cement projects installation bagged and completed? Over the last 3-4 years, the market has been sluggish due to subdued demand of the Cement due to lack of activities related to housing and infrastructure projects. We expect the situation will change sometime by end of this year or early next year as it is expected that work on large infrastructure projects and industrial projects will commence in full swing. Housing sector is also getting the boost from the GOI. From the buyer’s perspective, how does cement plants offered by you ensure productivity, savings and ROI? We design and supply complete VRPM system along with static and dynamic separator in semi-finish mode for enhancing the capacity & reducing the specific power consumption. We have dedicated Process, Engineering and Commissioning team to assist our customers. The capacity increase is between 50% and 70% and savings in power consumption is 4 kwh/ton to 6kwh/ton. The payback period is very attractive. Brief us about the unique features of Vertical Roller Pre-Grinding Mill for the cement sector? VRPM is an effective solution for Brownfield expansion and Greenfield plants for grinding Clinker and Raw materials. Energy savings up to 4-6 kwh/Ton of Cement is achieved. Capacity Enhancement is possible up to 70%. In the VRPM, high efficiency grinding is carried out simultaneously by compressive and shearing forces. The VRPM as a machine is very rugged and has been working as a workhouse for many years. Since there is no airflow in VRPM, the wear & tear is comparatively very less. VRPM has proven to be a useful machine and is comparable to the performance of Roll Press but with less maintenance requirements. Technological innovations are happening all the Could you tell us about your R&D initiatives and efforts to keep up with the latest tech trend? We are giving lot of emphasis on research & development and are indigenously developing various options for Static Separator and Pneumatic Conveying systems. We have tied-up with CNBM (Hefei) Group from China who is the No.1 supplier of Roller Press system in the world for cement, slag and Raw material grinding. Once the market picks up, we hope to get good business in this segment. AMCL aims to emerge as a complete solution provider in the industrial segments by ensuring customer delight. At AMCL operational excellence is demonstrated through continuous focus on improvement, primarily to build a strong customer relationship, thereby adding value to all the stakeholders. Demonetization to derail the growth of the cement sector says India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra). What’s your take on the likely impact of demonetization on the Cement Industry? Demonetization has affected the sentiments with the result the performance during FY 2015-16 has not been up to the expectations. Could you comment on the scheduled implementation of GST and its after effects on the manufacturing sector in India? GST implementation will definitely help in boosting the overall sentiments. What needs to be done by the Government to boost Cement sector growth? With the GOI is now giving impetus to the infrastructure, housing and industrial projects, and the cement demand is expected to grow substantially which in turn will give a boost to our business. Going forward, what are your immediate and long term plans for expansion in India? Our immediate plans are to establish AMCL as preferred solution provider in the grinding field. For long term we have plans to offer up gradation of Pyro-processing lines. We also wish to focus on Africa and Middle East markets.