Rajkot diesel engine makers join hands to take on lighter Chinese product

For the first time in the manufacturing history of India, seven arch-rival companies manufacturing Lister-Peter type diesel engines in Rajkot have joined hands to roar against the competition from China.

"We have developed a prototype model of the diesel engine whose weight is just 45 kilograms and has being tested for its successful and expected performance," said Naran Patel of India Brass Works and Co-ordinator of Diesel Engine Committee of Rajkot Engineering Association (REA).

Earlier the Lister-Peter type models of Rajkot weighed 300-325 kilograms compared with that of China's which are 50 kilograms.

Therefore, without hampering its performance and capacity, seven Rajkot-based manufacturers "" P M Diesel, Gujarat Forging, Ashok Engineering, West Coast Diesel, Patel Engineering, Topland Industries and Sensitive Industries"" developed a diesel engine model weighing 45 kilograms.

"Our UPS was to focus on weight reduction of the product with equivalent performance," said Patel.

This model is equivalent to the Chinese make-product weighing 50 kilograms which had dented the diesel engine business of Rajkot by down-sizing 70 per cent of the production globally, he said.

Five year back, about 5-lakh diesel engines per annum were being produced from Rajkot alone. These engines were of various capacity ranging from 3.5 to 25 HP. But later, these Chinese companies took over the market share which brought down the manufacturing capacity of Rajkot by 3.5-lakh diesel engines annually.

"The annual turnover of the business, which was around Rs 400 to 500 crore per annum, scaled down by Rs 350 crore in five years. Now, Rajkot produces less than 1.5-lakh diesel engines annually, hence the entire business turnover steep down to Rs 150 crore," said Chandrakant Patel, managing director, P M Diesel and vice-chairman of REA's diesel engine committee.

"Getting government aide would have taken a long time, therefore, we decided to take the step ourself as we will be marketing the products with individual brand names," said Suresh Doshi of Ashok Engineering.

With the advent of Chinese diesel engines imported in India, the domestic buyers also shifted their focus towards them due to its light-weight feature. Being light in weight, these products were easily mobile, which would let customers save on their transportation cost.

Five years back, the Lister-Peter type diesel engines manufactured in Rajkot were sold at Rs 7,500 to Rs 8,000 per piece but with the sudden rise in price of scrap, used as raw-material, the India diesel engines cost somewhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per piece. So if a weight of product is reduced by 85 per cent than its existing weight, the pricing of the product will reduce, which will prove to be a boon in disguise for us," said Raju Patel of Topland Industries.

Currently, China selling engines of similar capacity costing Rs 6,500 per piece and we are planning to sell it at Rs 7,500 to Rs 8,000 per piece, however our focus is to provide precision product clubbed with quality and performance in terms of fuel efficiency which we are aiming at 10 to 15 per cent on a higher side than China, said Chandrakant Patel.

Out of the total production, 33 per cent of the machines are being exported and rest 67 per cent is being sold in the domestic market. Five per cent is used for generating power and 95 per cent is used for agriculture purpose.

Diesel engines manufactured in Rajkot were exported mainly to African Middle East countries and sold at a double price than Chinese make products, till now.

"Diesel engines from China cost around US$ 100 per piece whereas Indian ones cost US$ 200 per piece. Now with this initiative, we are sure that we will combat the price war aggressively," said Indu Vora of West Coast Diesel.

Diesel engines exports from Rajkot to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Ghana, Ethopia, Syria have reduced drastically in last five years, as they prefer Chinese make diesel engines, added Vora.

"As far as the quality and service support of the Indian product is concerned, oversea customers are highly banking on us. Therefore, we are hopeful that with this new innovation, Rajkot will once again be recognised as one of the best engineering destinations of the world," said Narendra Nasit of Patel Engineering.