Germany-based Dürr AG, a globally active supplier of products, systems and services mainly for the automobile industry, is planning to strengthen its services in the country. This includes important stages of vehicle production, while bringing in a more clean technology.
Ralph Heuwing, chief financial officer at Dürr AG, said the company was betting big on India’s growth story. “The drivers for the growth include, new capex planned by customers, and growing service business of the company including maintenance, modifications, spare parts, upgrading and installation. Also, our customers want advanced technology to bring down the cost per unit. That is our expertise,” he said.
Business in India currently contributes around five to six per cent to its parent’s total revenue, which was around Rs 1.9 billion in 2011.
“Our target is to increase India’s share to 7.5 per cent in the next three years,” he said.
After 25 years of operation in India, the German major seeks to further strengthen its role in engineering, purchasing, project management, commissioning and software development, according to Andreas Stedtfeld, managing director, paint and final assembly systems, Dürr India Pvt Ltd.
Today, half of group’s 400 employees in India work in this southern metropolis. Of them, around 90 per cent are engineers. A quarter of them work for Dürr Dürr global customers on projects in countries like the US, China and those in eastern Europe.
Some of the recent projects where the Indian team was successfully involved includes Renault-Nissan alliance plant at Morocco and Ford's facility at Thailand, Stedtfeld noted.
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“Dürr’s other Indian subsidiary, Schenck RoTec India Ltd in Noida, is developing products for the Indian market. These will also be exported to countries such as those in Southeast Asia. When it comes to head count globally, he noted, Indian operations are the fifth largest in the group today, “ he added.
Dürr is the market leader in painting, balancing and cleaning technology, and has a leading position in final assembly technology. “Consumer demand is growing in India,” said Heuwing. “This was proved by a growth reported by passenger cars sales during the global slowdown. While this year it will be slower, next fiscal the growth is expected to be around 18-20 per cent.” Bottlenecks like infrastructure and energy, though, continue, he added.
The growth numbers has prompted the original equipment manufacturer to continue their investment both in green- and brown-field projects, with a focus on minimum operating cost rather than capital expenditures. Every year, two or three factories are being built, while brownfield expansion for new models and new design are getting added in the existing installations. “ Our customers want advanced technology to bring down the cost per unit,” Heuwing said. “That is our expertise.”
He cited the energy efficiency space as an example. “Traditionally,” he said, “the energy consumption in a paint shop is more than 1,000 Kw hours per car, while international standard is 750 Kw hour per car. “Dürr’s best practice is 490 Kw hours per car,” he added. “With products like EcoDry Scrubber, a dry overspray separation system, we can substantially improve the energy efficiency.”
For, “automobile majors material management and energy efficiency are the two important focus areas, which in turn push our product’s demand,” he added.
It was in 2010 that the company, as part of Dürr Dürr’s strategic goal to expand in environmental and energy technology, set up a new division called Clean Technology Systems in India, he Heuwing recalled. “We are even open for good acquisition opportunities in this space,” he added.