Ahmedabad-based Electrotherm (India) Ltd, which offers customised steel-making machinery to secondary steel industry, expects to produce 100 units of its newly developed continuous casting machine (CCM) next year.
According to company executive director Suneel Kulkarni, 20 projects based on the machine are already underway, and around 30 more would be completed by the end of the year.
He said the CCM would be suitable to small manufacturers as it costs Rs 1.5-2 crore depending on the plant layout, compared with the Rs 2-4 crore price range of existing alternatives. The total market demand for continuous casting machines is estimated to be around 2,000.
It also expects to export 30 per cent of the machines to markets in Africa, West Asia and SAARC countries.Bharat Tank, country head (marketing), Electrotherm, said the company's equipment is used in 3,400 installations so far, accounting for 16 million tonnes of steel production capacity.
The total steel production capacity in India is 66 million tonnes, of which 28 million tonnes is based on induction technology. Company executives were addressing mediapersons in Hyderabad along with city-based Sarwottam Ispat Ltd, which is the first steel-maker to install the new machinery.
The engineering and products division, accounted for a revenue of Rs 260 crore last year, and is expected to grow at 20 per cent this year.
