We have seen many power projects in the recent past being delayed due to non-performance of Coal Handling package vendors. The solution to this challenge is the Owner or the End customer needs to have stringent pre-qualification criteria for various packages ensuring only experienced companies having in-house technology are qualified. This will ensure quality and reduce the risk of the end customer. Indranil Roy, Director-MHE, thyssenkrupp Industries India Pvt Ltd shares his insight with Sandeep Sharma about the Port handling systems offered by the company, customisation offered, prestigious material handling installations in India, key performance indicators of MHE offerings, major challenges faced during the MH installations in the power sector, verticals and geographies driving growth, investment plans, and the impact of GST on the business at large. Edited excerpts... Could you provide us an insight about your Port handling systems? How far these systems/solutions are customizable and cost-effective? thyssenkrupp is fully equipped with the latest technology offerings for handling bulk material at the ports. Some of our ports technology equipment includes ship loaders, ship unloaders, belt conveyors, and stockyard equipment. We also can offer turnkey solutions at ports where we take complete responsibility of design, supply, erection, and commissioning of various material handling equipment/systems. Based in Germany, thyssenkrupp has an R&D set up which is working on several productivity solutions for ports. We have complete access to all those solutions and are in a position to offer to Indian ports on a continuous basis. One such technology product is the Continuous Ship Unloader that has the capability of evacuating an entire load of a ship in the shortest time span with the least amount of spillage. With a large engineering database for port equipment of various capacities thyssenkrupp can provide customized systems/ solutions in a short span of time to suit the requirements of the customer. thyssenkrupp has also developed digital solutions for the complete material handling system in ports and can offer the same tailoring them to meet customers specific requirements. Which are your prestigious material handling installations in India? thyssenkrupp has a widespread presence in India for material handling equipment /systems and has been associated with large public sector and private sector companies since the last four decades. Talking about some prestigious projects executed by us it would not be out of place to mention that we have supplied the Coal Handling Plant for Ultra Mega Power Plant in India and also have to our credit supply and installation of many coal handling plants for supercritical power plants. We are also presently executing two large Coal Handling Plant for Obra and Jawaharpur Power Plants of UPRVUNL. In the last couple of years, we have introduced new machines, which have been designed and manufactured in India, like India’s first Twin Type Rotary Wagon Tippler (G-33 Rev 01 design) and Circular Stacker-Reclaimers, one such Circular Stacker-Reclaimer is supplied to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s Kochi refinery as part of the complete bulk material handling system for petcoke How far the key performance indicators of your MHE stems/solutions score over your competition? thyssenkrupp offers the widest range of equipment for material handling systems. Due to these reasons, thyssenkrupp has emerged as the market leader and preferred vendor for the supply of turnkey material handling plants. Having already executed a large portfolio of high capacity material handling plants, today thyssenkrupp has evolved into a company that executes material handling plants for ultra-mega power projects. The product range includes Non-Slewing-Luffing Stackers / Slewing & Luffing Stackers, Twin Boom Stackers, Rail / Crawler Mounted Bucket Wheel Reclaimers, Combined Stacker-Reclaimers, Portal and Semi-Portal Scraper Reclaimers, Wagon Tipplers and Side Arm Chargers among others. Talking about thyssenkrupp, we would like to mention that as a brand we stand for excellence in design in our manufacturing offerings and facilities. We invest a significant amount on R&D activities to bring to our customers the latest equipment in the different fields that we are operating. When it comes to our product range, they are designed with a simple philosophy of providing higher efficiency with the least emission and are low in maintenance. We are continuously investing our efforts in providing digital solutions for customers for individual equipment as well as systems. This offers substantial benefits to the customer like predictive/ preventive maintenance, online real-time MIS, etc. What are the major challenges do you face during the material handling systems installations as far as coal-based power sector is concerned? And how do you overcome those challenges? In recent years, we have seen the power sector placing orders on EPC/BOP basis in place of orders on packages basis as done earlier. Though this has provided benefit with regard to the overall responsibility shifting from the Owner / End customer to the EPC /BOP partner, the challenge in this lies with the selection of the individual package vendors. In case the best vendor is not selected this puts the whole project at risk of delay. We have seen many power projects in the recent past being delayed due to non-performance of Coal Handling package vendors. The solution to this challenge is the Owner or the End customer needs to have stringent pre-qualification criteria for various packages ensuring only experienced companies having in-house technology are qualified. This will ensure quality and reduce the risk of the end customer. Which are the verticals and geographies driving growth for your material handling business in India? In addition to the power sector which plays a major contribution to thyssenkrupp’s material handling business in India, we feel the large potential for transportation of material through waterways within the country could be one of the key drivers for growth. India has a huge coastline, creating a large potential for efficient international and domestic sea-borne trade. Indian ports need to modernize in order to reduce the waiting time for the ships calling Indian ports. We feel the port industry will see the usage of large size handling equipment and sophisticated automation which will help enhance the productivity of ports in the coming years. Do you have any investment plans to expand your operations in India? In our last interaction you have mentioned about your plans for creating a Network of Excellence (NOE), could you please share some insights about the same? As a diversified industrial group, we work towards providing and delivering innovative products and solutions for the betterment of our customers. We strongly believe in the Make in India concept and understand its significance thereby working in a timely manner towards providing solutions to make India the global hub in its offering in technology. For this, our teams comprising experienced leaders across verticals come together on a regular basis for discussions. This internal program which goes by the name ‘Leverage India’ has been conceptualized with an intention to brainstorm and discuss on topics related to technology and equipment including design and manufacturing. As part of this program thyssenkrupp has already started manufacturing gearless drive pulleys in India for global requirements and supplies are being made to countries like Chile, Peru, China, Mongolia, and Tibet. The Centre of Excellence of FGD equipment has also been recently transferred to India and we have started offering global requirements of FGD equipment from India. The next equipment in line for technology transfer is Grab Ship Unloaders. In short, we can say thyssenkrupp is one of the leading industrial houses who has taken Make in India concept very seriously and is also implementing the same. Could you comment on the impact of GST on the business at large? GST is a revolutionary change in the Indian tax system. We expect the long term benefits to be substantial. One of the major benefits, which we expect, is faster movement of goods across the country. Before implementation of GST, the Mining and Bulk material handling equipment attracted tax of 12.5% Excise Duty, VAT 12% to 14% or CST 2% and entry tax in few states. After the recent course correction by the GST council the percentage for most of the products attract 18% while few are still in the slab of 28%. The acclimatization of GST by the industry is essential for clarity of the input percentage applicable for our equipment. Once the same is in place, we are hopeful that prices shall stabilize.
Indranil Roy, Director-MHE, thyssenkrupp Industries India Pvt Ltd shares his insight with Sandeep Sharma about the Port handling systems offered by the company, customisation offered, prestigious material handling installations in India, key performance indicators of MHE offerings, major challenges faced during the MH installations in the power sector, verticals and geographies driving growth, investment plans, and the impact of GST on the business at large. Edited excerpts...
Could you provide us an insight about your Port handling systems? How far these systems/solutions are customizable and cost-effective? thyssenkrupp is fully equipped with the latest technology offerings for handling bulk material at the ports. Some of our ports technology equipment includes ship loaders, ship unloaders, belt conveyors, and stockyard equipment. We also can offer turnkey solutions at ports where we take complete responsibility of design, supply, erection, and commissioning of various material handling equipment/systems.
Based in Germany, thyssenkrupp has an R&D set up which is working on several productivity solutions for ports. We have complete access to all those solutions and are in a position to offer to Indian ports on a continuous basis. One such technology product is the Continuous Ship Unloader that has the capability of evacuating an entire load of a ship in the shortest time span with the least amount of spillage. With a large engineering database for port equipment of various capacities thyssenkrupp can provide customized systems/ solutions in a short span of time to suit the requirements of the customer. thyssenkrupp has also developed digital solutions for the complete material handling system in ports and can offer the same tailoring them to meet customers specific requirements.
Which are your prestigious material handling installations in India? thyssenkrupp has a widespread presence in India for material handling equipment /systems and has been associated with large public sector and private sector companies since the last four decades. Talking about some prestigious projects executed by us it would not be out of place to mention that we have supplied the Coal Handling Plant for Ultra Mega Power Plant in India and also have to our credit supply and installation of many coal handling plants for supercritical power plants. We are also presently executing two large Coal Handling Plant for Obra and Jawaharpur Power Plants of UPRVUNL.
In the last couple of years, we have introduced new machines, which have been designed and manufactured in India, like India’s first Twin Type Rotary Wagon Tippler (G-33 Rev 01 design) and Circular Stacker-Reclaimers, one such Circular Stacker-Reclaimer is supplied to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s Kochi refinery as part of the complete bulk material handling system for petcoke
How far the key performance indicators of your MHE stems/solutions score over your competition? thyssenkrupp offers the widest range of equipment for material handling systems. Due to these reasons, thyssenkrupp has emerged as the market leader and preferred vendor for the supply of turnkey material handling plants. Having already executed a large portfolio of high capacity material handling plants, today thyssenkrupp has evolved into a company that executes material handling plants for ultra-mega power projects. The product range includes Non-Slewing-Luffing Stackers / Slewing & Luffing Stackers, Twin Boom Stackers, Rail / Crawler Mounted Bucket Wheel Reclaimers, Combined Stacker-Reclaimers, Portal and Semi-Portal Scraper Reclaimers, Wagon Tipplers and Side Arm Chargers among others. Talking about thyssenkrupp, we would like to mention that as a brand we stand for excellence in design in our manufacturing offerings and facilities. We invest a significant amount on R&D activities to bring to our customers the latest equipment in the different fields that we are operating. When it comes to our product range, they are designed with a simple philosophy of providing higher efficiency with the least emission and are low in maintenance. We are continuously investing our efforts in providing digital solutions for customers for individual equipment as well as systems. This offers substantial benefits to the customer like predictive/ preventive maintenance, online real-time MIS, etc.
What are the major challenges do you face during the material handling systems installations as far as coal-based power sector is concerned? And how do you overcome those challenges? In recent years, we have seen the power sector placing orders on EPC/BOP basis in place of orders on packages basis as done earlier. Though this has provided benefit with regard to the overall responsibility shifting from the Owner / End customer to the EPC /BOP partner, the challenge in this lies with the selection of the individual package vendors. In case the best vendor is not selected this puts the whole project at risk of delay. We have seen many power projects in the recent past being delayed due to non-performance of Coal Handling package vendors. The solution to this challenge is the Owner or the End customer needs to have stringent pre-qualification criteria for various packages ensuring only experienced companies having in-house technology are qualified. This will ensure quality and reduce the risk of the end customer.
Which are the verticals and geographies driving growth for your material handling business in India? In addition to the power sector which plays a major contribution to thyssenkrupp’s material handling business in India, we feel the large potential for transportation of material through waterways within the country could be one of the key drivers for growth.
India has a huge coastline, creating a large potential for efficient international and domestic sea-borne trade. Indian ports need to modernize in order to reduce the waiting time for the ships calling Indian ports. We feel the port industry will see the usage of large size handling equipment and sophisticated automation which will help enhance the productivity of ports in the coming years.
Do you have any investment plans to expand your operations in India? In our last interaction you have mentioned about your plans for creating a Network of Excellence (NOE), could you please share some insights about the same? As a diversified industrial group, we work towards providing and delivering innovative products and solutions for the betterment of our customers. We strongly believe in the Make in India concept and understand its significance thereby working in a timely manner towards providing solutions to make India the global hub in its offering in technology. For this, our teams comprising experienced leaders across verticals come together on a regular basis for discussions. This internal program which goes by the name ‘Leverage India’ has been conceptualized with an intention to brainstorm and discuss on topics related to technology and equipment including design and manufacturing.
As part of this program thyssenkrupp has already started manufacturing gearless drive pulleys in India for global requirements and supplies are being made to countries like Chile, Peru, China, Mongolia, and Tibet. The Centre of Excellence of FGD equipment has also been recently transferred to India and we have started offering global requirements of FGD equipment from India. The next equipment in line for technology transfer is Grab Ship Unloaders. In short, we can say thyssenkrupp is one of the leading industrial houses who has taken Make in India concept very seriously and is also implementing the same.
Could you comment on the impact of GST on the business at large? GST is a revolutionary change in the Indian tax system. We expect the long term benefits to be substantial. One of the major benefits, which we expect, is faster movement of goods across the country. Before implementation of GST, the Mining and Bulk material handling equipment attracted tax of 12.5% Excise Duty, VAT 12% to 14% or CST 2% and entry tax in few states. After the recent course correction by the GST council the percentage for most of the products attract 18% while few are still in the slab of 28%. The acclimatization of GST by the industry is essential for clarity of the input percentage applicable for our equipment. Once the same is in place, we are hopeful that prices shall stabilize.