Claas to set up agri tool plant in Punjab

As part of its India expansion plans, Germany-based agri machinery manufacturer, Claas, will set up a harvester plant in Morinda, Punjab, at about Rs 100 crore.

"The investment will be made in two phases spread over 2-3 years. In the first phase, we will put in about Rs 60 crore, while the Rs 40 crore will be invested in a later phase," Claas India Managing Director Pradeep K Malik said.

Talking to Business Standard, Deputy Chairperson of the shareholders Committee Cathrina Claas said, "With the new combine harvestor plant, we are stressing our long-term involvement in India."

Cathrina said: "The significant growth rates and the high engineering progress in India are indicators of the increasing importance of units producing for the farm sector. Thus India is best-placed for global sourcing activities. We want to increase the purchasing volume in India over the next five years exponentially."

Commenting upon the demand in the domestic market, she said, "It is a totally unorganised sector, and no such survey has been done, but according to estimates there is an annual demand for 2,500 harvestors, including self-propelled harvestors, in the country; apart from the domestic market, we will export to Africa, Asia and Latin America."

Currently the production capacity at the Faridabad unit is 600-650 units per annum and it produces small rice harvesters for the Asian market. This combine, which has rubber tracks instead of wheels, is specially designed to work in waterlogged fields, typical in areas where rice is cultivated, such as India, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The new Crop Tiger 60 combine harvester was developed in Class's Faridabad plant and tested in operation during the last harvest.

The new facility, expected to start its operations by the middle of next year, will produce the 'Crop Tiger 60' combine harvester, which is being developed at the company's existing plant in Faridabad.

The company also wants to use India as its exporting hub, mainly for the Asian region.

"We want to use India as our exporting hub for the whole of Asia. By now we have exported 750 harvesters at a cost of about Rs 12 crore from our Faridabad plant, which is very small but we want to increase it significantly," Malik said.

India contributes less than one per cent in the company's global business of Rs 13,680 crore and "we want to increase it multi-fold in the next 3-4 years," he added.

Claas is also planning to expand its product portfolio in India by introducing products like bailer machine to meet the needs of agriculturists.

Initially, it will import the bailer machinery from its facility in Germany, but plans to set up a domestic manufacturing unit, to cost around Rs 60-90 crore (10-15 million Euros) in next couple of years, when the sales figure touches 2,000 pieces, Claas Group Vice President sales Lothar Kriszun said.