Drive-through container scanner!
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) is the largest port operator and developer in the country. The Kattupalli Port (AKPPL) near Chennai is a joint venture company of APSEZ and TIDCO and is being developed as a state-of-the-art port with 30 berths to handle containers, bulk, break bulk cargo, liquid cargo, gases, RoRo, coal, LNG, LPG chemicals…
With a draft of 14.5 m and spread over 322 acres, currently, the third berth is under construction. Container traffic at Kattupalli has seen a good increase. 493,260 TEUs was the capacity handled in 2017-18 and it has increased to 600,000 TEUs in 2018-19.
Adani Ennore Container Terminal Private Ltd (AECTPL) has entered into an agreement with Kamarajar Port, Ennore, for operating container berths and for handling containerised Import/Export cargoes. Container terminals with a quay length of 730 m are to be constructed.
AKPPL and AECTPL are strategically located within the limits of Chennai city just 30 km to the north Chennai city; they provide easy ingress and egress routes to the cargo traffic, without entering the city of Chennai.
After the arrival of Kattupalli port, business has seen a remarkable change in the clearance and delivery of containers.
AKPPL and AECTPL have the latest technology of Terminal Operating System, the first of its kind in India, which can support the entire supply chain in doing business smoothly. Also, the drive-through container scanner at Kattupalli, the first of its kind in South Indian ports, is capable of scanning 120 containers in an hour. AKPPL is also in the process of developing a warehouse of 360,000 sq. ft and liquid tank farms with a capacity of 60,000 KL.
Apollo Tyres – breaking barriers
Apollo Tyres Ltd, the world’s 11th largest tyre manufacturer, has significant market share across all product categories. With a capacity of 1872 MT per day in FY18, the company caters to all car and truck manufacturers.
Exporting to more than 100 countries worldwide, the company appreciates uninterrupted power supply, other rich infrastructure and the human capital of Tamil Nadu as favourable factors for its growth.
BMW – hybrid electric vehicles on the way
BMW Group Plant started operations in Chennai in 2007. The plant has an on-site test track and a vehicle dispatch centre. Till date, BMW Group has invested Rs 12.5 billion in its subsidiaries in India.
The Chennai plant produces nine models and plans to increase it to 11 during 2019. The plant can produce upto 14,000 units per annum. BMW Group India is a fast-growing luxury car manufacturer in the country. The level of localisation at Plant Chennai is 50 per cent. Strong localisation benefits BMW in terms of cost optimisation and value addition.
BMW is taking the lead in e-mobility with underlying investments in innovation and technology. Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) are the first step towards the eventual transition to battery electric vehicles (BEV). Favourable industrial policies, fast turn-around-time for approvals, smooth execution and prompt support make Tamil Nadu an ideal choice for businesses, says the company.
Cetex Petrochemicals – needed a naphtha cracker…
Cetex is the only manufacturer of methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and secondary butyl alcohol (SBA) in South East Asia. The plant has capacity to produce 10,000 TPA each of MEK and SBA. Situated in Manali, Cetex has expanded rapidly in the last ten years with diverse portfolios such as pharma intermediates, aroma chemicals, fuel additives and treatment chemicals.
The company had a turnover of Rs 200 crore of which export accounted for Rs 36 crore. Cetex plans to expand its capacity of MEK production.
S Ilanahai, Managing Director, said that with the availability of natural gas, companies that were earlier using naphtha would switch to gas. This would result in an excess of naphtha. “We have to look for large investors to set up a naphtha cracker unit. Also, similar to Hyderabad, we need to create a research environment. We can invite pharma companies to set up facilities for these. This will create the needed impetus for the growth of chemical industries,” he said.
CONCOR – two more terminals coming
Container Corporation of India Ltd (CONCOR), a Navaratna PSU under the Ministry of Railways, is the leading container train operator in India. This market leader has the most extensive network of 80 terminals spread across the country. The company had 320 containers and handled 3.5 million TEUs in 2017-18.
CONCOR terminals provide warehousing, container parking and repair facilities. It offers value added services such as transit warehousing, bonded warehousing, load consolidation and air cargo clearance. The company provides e-enabled services like, ‘Know Your Container Location’ and ‘SMS-tracking’ facility.
Performance of the southern region has grown from 2.9 lakh TEUs during 2010-11 to 4.2 lakh TEUs in 2017-18. CONCOR is spread over 3 southern states, with eight terminals. Two more are coming up at Sriperumbudur and Kadakola (Mysore).
Daimler – the new entrant drives ahead…
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) is one of the youngest subsidiaries of Daimler AG. Since its inception, Daimler has sold more than 75,000 Bharat Benz vehicles and no other newcomer has ever achieved this in India. The company exported more than 50 million parts to other Daimler entities. The company started exporting vehicles in 2013 and has successfully grown this business to a total number of more than 20,000 units to date, serving more than 40 markets in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
DICV develops, produces and sells buses and coaches as well as chassis under the Bharat Benz and Mercedes-Benz brands. The plant in Oragadam, near Chennai, has a capacity for 72,000 units per year. A unique feature is that engines and transmissions, trucks and buses for four distinct commercial vehicle brands – Bharat Benz, FUSO, Mercedes- Benz and Freightliner – are produced here. Recently the 100,000th vehicle went off the production line.
Spread over 400 acres, with an in-house R&D centre, 50 per cent of the plant’s electrical power demand is already met from renewable sources. The plant is a zero-discharge facility and has rainwater harvesting system to fill a storage pond for 60,000 kilolitres. DICV aims to be one of India’s greenest industrial complexes.
DICV has made a total investment of more than Rs. 5000 crore. With more than 350 suppliers, with half of these located in Tamil Nadu, DICV boasts of more than 90 per cent localisation.
HEPC – booming handlooms
Handloom Export Promotion Council (HEPC) was set up in 1965, to promote the export of handloom products. It plays a pivotal role in the marketing and promotion of handloom goods. The company has about 1500-member exporters. Major handloom export centres are Karur, Panipat, Varanasi, Kannur, Madurai and New Delhi. The main product categories exported are home textiles, floor coverings, clothing accessories and fabric.
Export of handloom products in 2016-17 amounted to Rs 2392 crore. Among the top 10 markets, six are European countries, accounted for 32 per cent market share while the USA for 26 per cent. South Africa, Canada and Brazil are markets with potential for growth.
HEPC undertakes: Reverse Buyer-Seller Meets, participates in several international fairs, supports clusters, provides international exposure for the weavers and encourages entry into export markets.
Honeywell, Madurai– aerospace and building tech
Honeywell, a Fortune 100 company, has been in India for more than 8 decades and has 4 manufacturing facilities and 5 global technology development centres. Around 15,000 employees, of whom 7000 are engineers, contribute to $ 1 billion in domestic sales and exports. More than 3000 products, solutions and applications are engineered in India across Honeywell’s four businesses, namely Aerospace, Building Technologies, Performance Materials and Technologies and Safety and Productivity Solutions.
The global technology centres are in Bengaluru, Gurugram, Hyderabad and Madurai.
The Madurai technology development centre was established in 2002 to drive technology development for Honeywell’s Aerospace and Building Technologies’ businesses. Over the past 15 years, Honeywell Madurai has played an extensive role in working with industries and universities in this region collaborating on multiple fronts. Honeywell Madurai has devised a programme called Vajram as part of the talent intake programme, to hire talent from local universities. These fresh graduates go through an intensive 4 to 6 months of experimential learning and this helps in laying a strong talent pipeline working on cutting edge technologies. The company’s subject matter experts conduct credit courses in various technologies for universities.
JSW Specialty Steel – million tonne from Mettur
With a million tonne capacity, Jindal Steel Works in Mettur, supplies specialty steels to automobile and engineering industries. The company took over the ailing SISCOL plant and quickly turned it around. Later it more than tripled its capacity.
There are challenges in operating in a place where there is no significant local offtake. Getting and retaining talent is an issue. JSW, Mettur employs more employees per tonne of production than what it does elsewhere, hurting to some extent its profitability. Add to that the considerable transportation costs involved due to land locked location in interior Tamil Nadu. These deny advantage of economies of scale.
Kansai Nerolac – the sheen expands
Kansai Nerolac, the household name in paints, will cross 100 years in 2020. The Hosur plant has the capacity of 7950 KL per month. Kansai Nerolac has acquired paint plants in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The main business constitute decorative paints, automotive coating and performance coating.
“Seven out of ten cars are painted with Nerolac and the company supplies to two, three and four wheelers and trucks,” said a company executive. The company has five running plants in Jaipur (Uttar Pradesh), Hosur (Tamil Nadu), Bawl (Haryana), Lote (Maharashtra) and Sayaka (Gujarat). Two more plants are to be set up in Punjab and AP by 2020.
Mettur Thermal – 84.7% PLF!
Mettur has hydroelectric and thermal power stations that meet a significant share of power needs of the state.
The Mettur Thermal Power Station acts as a base load power plant for TANGEDCO. At Power Station 1, there are four units each with a capacity of 210MW. Additionally, there is Power Station 2 with a capacity of 600MW.
The principal raw material is coal. Indian coal is bought from Talcher in Orissa while imports are from Indonesia. The former has higher ash content while the later has more sulphur.
The factory had a high plant load factor of 84.7 per cent. Mettur’s disadvantage is its location in the hinterland incurring additional costs on transportation of coal.
Michelin Tyres – reducing total tyre-life cost
Michelin’s tyre manufacturing plant in Chennai, currently has capacity for 30,000 tonnes, making a range of radial truck/bus tyres. ..
Michelin has a strong commercial and technical relationship with several car and truck manufacturers. The company recently announced an agreement with IndiGo Airlines.
Michelin also supplies tyres to multiple state transport corporations and a large number of commercial bus fleets. The company offers ‘service solutions’ to optimise the total costs on tyres. (cost per kilometre).
Michelin’s priority is to improve the efficiency of tyres in terms of energy consumption (reduction of the weight of the tyre reducing the quantum of raw material. This in turn will reduce fuel consumption while preserving other performance parameters of the tyres such as breaking distance. The Indian R&D Centre operationalised in 2014 and the materials testing laboratory in Manesar, Haryana inaugurated in June 2017 are providing support to these endeavours.
NTECL – partnering in powering Tamil Nadu…
NTECL is a joint venture company formed between NTPC and Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company Ltd (TANGEDCO). The 1500 MW plant was commissioned to its full capacity and operating since 2015. Around 70 per cent power from this station is supplied to Tamil Nadu and the rest to neighbouring states. Close to the sea, this plant has a seawater desalination unit of 20MLD capacity. This takes care of the entire water requirements.
To comply with the revised SOX emission norms, flue gas de-sulpharisation (FGD) units at a cost of around Rs 830 crore are to be installed by December 2022 in all the three units, said Debasis Sarkar, Chief Executive Officer.
A solar thermal based seawater desalination system with a capacity of 120 tonnes of water per day is also under construction. This would meet potable water needs.
The rapid growth of renewable energy sources leads to cyclic operation of thermal stations. As and when the renewable energy capacity changes, the thermal power output has to be modified. This constant cyclic operation can damage power plant systems. NTPC is partnering with foreign experts to
address this issue.
Sanmar: lush, green and quiet
As you step into the Sanmar factory at Mettur, you get a feel of how good the environment around a plant can be. Lush, green and quiet, it breathes tranquility which is not generally associated with a chemical unit. With four plants, an associate company, and a feeder power unit, it’s housed over 350 acres and employs directly about 1275. A refrigerant gas plant (initially commissioned in 1941), a PVC division (1967), a caustic chlorine unit (1965) are all part of the Chemplast group. The plant is on zero liquid discharge. A visit around the factory tells you it is spic and span in the Japanese mould.
What makes for a stellar contribution is that six levels of power redundancy have been built including usage of power from a captive coal-based plant. Importantly, the company does not significantly compete with the local population for resources, be it power or water. It saves 3000 KL/day of water with the use of an air-cooled condenser. The treated water is recycled to the habitat.
Complex, innovative electronic products from Sanmina
Sanmina is a leading integrated manufacturing solutions company that makes some of the world’s most complex and innovative electronic, optical and mechanical products.
“Oragadam has been a strategic location for Sanmina for more than a decade now,” said Elan Chelian, Managing Director and Vice President of Sanmina’s Chennai facility Sanmina’s facility in Chennai holds key electronics manufacturing certifications for the automotive, medical, aerospace, telecommunications and industrial segments. In 2018, Sanmina became the first tier 1 electronic manufacturing services (EMS) company to achieve FDA registration in India.
In addition, the Sanmina Chennai facility has both Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and Domestic Tariff Area (DTA) status, enabling it to manufacture and deliver products for both domestic and export markets. This also makes it possible for Sanmina to support the Make in India initiative.
The hitech Chennai manufacturing facilities produce the most advanced medical, communications, industrial, automotive and computing products in the world. This enables Sanmina to offer end to end solutions with products like high-end servers, cloud storage, ultrasound scanners, baby warmers, MRI & ECG sub-assemblies and anti-lock braking systems.
“The Sanmina Oragadam facility leverages a local talent pool and has a broad range of advanced electronic manufacturing capabilities,” explained Elan Chelian. “The site provides value to our customers with early design involvement (EDI), design for excellence (DFx) solutions, robust part and process traceability and innovative automation solutions,” he added.
Unique software solutions
TAMIN is involved in the production and marketing of granite raw blocks, granite finished products, major minerals and mineral-based products. Large deposits of black, colour granite blocks and major minerals like graphite, limestone, vermiculite are being executed by adopting scientific mining and are marketed through the open tender system.
TAMIN has been receiving annual CAPEXIL awards for several years for its export performance. It has made an innovative effort by implementing unique software called Quarry Management System (QMS) to monitor daily activities of the organisation. TAMIN has been awarded the prestigious National e-Governance Award for this software.
TIIC – the pioneer SFC
Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) is the pioneer state-level financial institution for nurturing industries. It has so far extended financial assistance to 122,621 units with a cumulative sanction of Rs 16,582 crore up to March 2018. Nearly 90 per cent of the total loan sanctions are extended to the MSME sector and 40 per cent to first generation entrepreneurs. Most of the industrial units in Tamil Nadu would have been assisted by TIIC some time or other.
TIIC also offers loans for service sector projects such as hotels, hospitals and tourism-related projects, purchase of transport vehicles that are registered as public carriers. TIIC offers working capital term loans to the existing assisted and non-assisted units. To encourage Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) TIIC offers a 3 per cent interest subvention.
TIIC plays an active role in the implementation of the New Entrepreneur cum Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS) for assisting educated youth to become first generation entrepreneurs. Under the scheme, the state government will provide a capital subsidy of 25 per cent of the project cost subject to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh. Besides, interest subvention of 3 per cent is also extended to the entrepreneurs on loan availed for the project. The unique feature of this scheme is the low promoter contribution of just 5 per cent for special category entrepreneurs like Backward Community, Most Backward Community, Scheduled Caste /Tribes entrepreneurs and 10 per cent for others.
Titan Co – watches, jewellery, eyewear…
Titan Company is Tata Group’s largest consumer product company. Started as a joint venture the company has diversified into jewellery, eyewear, fragrances and helmet segments. Taneira is the company’s latest retailing venture that sells saris that are ethnic business wear. In 2018, the watches division accounted for Rs 2126 crore in revenue. Titan’s total revenue grew 20.44 per cent to Rs 15,656 crore in 2017-18 , of which jewellery sales fetched Rs 13,036 crore. In 2016, Titan invested in Carat Lane, a digital jeweller, who reported a turnover of Rs 290 crore in FY 2017-18.
First Steps – seem great steps…
this company is a niche in the field of baby garments. With four units in Hosur and two units in Karnataka, the company exports garments to UK, Europe, Middle East and recently to the US.
“Presently we have about 3000 machines and 6800 employees. We produce about 53 million garments every year mostly knitted and our turnover is around Rs 500 crore,” said B Senthil Nathan, Chief Finance Officer, First Steps Babywear Private Ltd.
Apart from the exports, the company also has a domestic label “Mini Club” to cater to the Indian market. “Now we have started to open our own branded stores named ‘Mini Club.’ We have about ten branded outlets in Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Jodhpur and Guwahati with a turnover of Rs 70 crore in the domestic market. This year we expect to grow between 8 per cent to10 per cent,” said Nathan.
Wheels India – heralded TVS Padi units
Wheels India Ltd. was the first of the TVS Padi units to commence operations in 1962. It started as a joint venture between Dunlop PLC of the United Kingdom and the TVS group for the manufacture of steel automotive wheels. The current promoters of the company are the TVS Group (40.77 per cent) and Titan Europe Holding (34.23 per cent).
Wheels India recorded a revenue of Rs. 2443 crore in 2017-18 and employs 3900 in Tamil Nadu. The 4 major business verticals within Wheels India are automotive wheels (steel and forged aluminium) construction and mining wheels, air suspension products for trucks and buses and windmill and railway parts.
In FY18, the company exported 18 per cent of its turnover and is a critical part of the global supply chain. An advanced Research and Development units is available on-site with design, development and testing capability. The team holds 12 patents with more in the pipeline. Global vehicle manufacturers use the R&D laboratory in Padi to test their products. The company also has an in-house tool design and tool manufacturing capability and is self-sufficient in terms of meeting tooling specifications for high quality domestic and export products.
Terex India – good traction in material handling
Terex Corporation is an American worldwide manufacturer of lifting and material handling equipement and solutions for a variety of industries. Terex started its operations in a record 11 months. The Hosur plant produces crushing machines, screening machines and allied products.
“In 2009 we started operations by importing 3 machines from our UK facility and we did a strip and build activity. Our operator mostly recruited from polytechnics and ITI, quickly learned the tasks. Today we assemble and export about 30 per cent of production,” said Amal Frederick B, Senior Director Operations.
The indegenisation levels of the products is high at 70 per cent.
Yamaha – performance, style and technology
From RX-100 in the 1980s and 1990s to the FZ series & R15 series from 2008 and the introduction of scooter models like Alpha, Fascino, Ray Z and Ray ZR from 2012, Yamaha has quickly built custom by offering performance, style and technology. With a dealership network of 645, the product line-up includes 15 bikes and 4 scooters. So far, the company has sold around 7.30 lakh units till November. The exports target for 2018 is 3.02 lakh units. The leading export countries are Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Yamaha has two plants in Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and one in Chennai.
The total investment till date is Rs 1550 crore and the investment made in R&D is Rs 60 crore. The total investment by vendors till date at Chennai plant is Rs1030 crore.
Chennai plant can manufacture 7.6 lakh units per annum and exports 55 per cent. The total exports from Chennai Plant is over 4000 million.
Yamaha has two R&D centres – Surajpur and Chennai. These centres focus on optimum utilization of Indian resources and develop new models best suited to the Indian customer requirements. This has helped to build models and parts not only for the Indian market but also for the export markets.
Hosur – where flowers and metals grow alike…
With a salubrious climate and thriving industrial culture, Hosur is a preferred gateway and a satellite town for Bengaluru. The place has close to 2300 small- and medium- industrial units and is home to several large manufacturing units.
Hosur is famous for its exotic roses exported in huge numbers every year, especially during Valentines’ day. At the peak, around 55 lakh flowers were shipped.
