Kirby Building's Haridwar unit to begin commercial production

Hyderabad-based Kirby Building Systems India, a subsidiary of the $1-billion Alghanim Group of Kuwait, will begin commercial production at its second pre-engineered steel building solutions unit, set up at Haridwar in Uttaranchal, on April 6, 2006.

The group is also working on a couple of other projects in India.

Completed in a record time of seven months at an investment of $20 million, the new manufacturing plant will produce 60,000 tonnes of pre-engineered steel buildings, taking the company's total installed capacity to 1,35000 tonnes a year.

Kirby had set up its first unit at Pashamailaram Industrial Area near here seven years back and its present capacity is 75,000 tonne a year.

Addressing a press conference today, Omar Kutayaba Alghanim, chief executive officer of Alghanim Industries and V R Rajan, managing director and CEO of Kirby Building Systems India Limited, said the company was bullish on the growing Indian industry. It was aiming to touch the Rs 500-crore turnover mark in the next couple of years from Rs 300 crore for the year 2005-06.

Rajan said that the concept of pre-engineered steel buildings was gaining ground in place of conventional building structures among the industry players owing to quick completion, durability and cost advantages.

India has a sizable market of Rs 2,300 crore for pre-engineered solutions, which is growing at the rate of 10 per cent year-on-year, according to him. At present, Kirby has a 60 per cent market share.

Citing reasons for locating the second unit in Uttaranchal, Rajan said the company wanted to be closer to the clients of north India. This apart, the incentives offered by the Uttaranchal government prompted the company to zero in on Haridwar.

Besides pre-engineered steel building fabrication, the company was also planning to expand into other areas with 4-5 projects in the pipeline, Kutayaba said. He, however, refused to divulge the details of these projects.