The Hindu Business Line : Titagarh Wagons on expansion track

The Kolkata-based Titagarh Wagons, one of the leading manufacturers of railway wagons and engineering equipment, chugs along growth path even as black clouds of economic slowdown hang over the manufacturing sector.

Backed by growing orders from Indian Railways currently in modernisation mode, Titagarh Wagons has gone ahead with capacity expansions, adopting new technologies through collaborations with overseas majors and backward integration.

Mr Umesh Chaudhary, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of the company, told Business Line that orders from the Railways remained intact though fresh orders from private sector had slowed down, to some extent. “There has not been any cancellation of orders, but some customers have postponed their decisions on new acquisitions”, he added.

Capex plans

In the first quarter of this fiscal, the company bagged an order worth Rs 200 crore from a single customer for manufacturing 900 wagons and it remains intact. Wagons contribute around 85 per cent to the annual turnover of the company. With realisations showing a steady growth, the company’s capacity expansion programme at a substantial investment progresses as scheduled helping cater to more wagon orders.

It entered the field of manufacturing and marketing special purpose wagons to suit the varying needs of customers – the Indian Railways, defence establishment and private users.

Wagon on wheels

It has also designed the Wagon on Wheels (WoW) to enable it to carry various types of trucks, catering to the needs of the logistics industry by providing a roll-on, roll-off service. Its design of the WoW wagon is currently under review by the RDSO (Railway Design & Standard Organisation), the Railways’ R&D set-up.

In addition to wagons, EMU coaches for the Railways too would be manufactured as the company has been so registered with the Railways and, therefore, is poised to secure first set of orders soon.

In the last one year, it has formed a joint venture with FreightCar America Inc for aluminium rail cars, acquired strategic stake in Greysham & Co for dedicated supply of air brakes and slack adjusters, critical component of production of wagons and also formed a joint venture for revival of Cimmco Birla Ltd, a sick wagon unit, which reopened for production preparation last month.

DRDO partner

Titagarh Wagons is registered as an industry partner of DRDO, for which it manufactures products such as special purpose wagons, shelters and other engineering equipment.

Titagarh Wagons also manufactures Bailey bridges, heavy earth moving and mining equipment, steel and SG iron castings of moderate to complex configuration.

Currently, it has a capacity to build 6000 wagons and manufacturing capacity of building 100 Bailey bridges annually. Titagarh Wagons also has the capacity to produce heavy earth moving equipment worth over Rs 25 crore a year.

Other activities

Titagarh Wagons recently acquired a non-banking financial company to facilitate financing equipment produced by it.

Its IPO last year was to fund setting up of an EMU manufacturing and axle machining and wheel set assembly facilities and modernisation and expansion of existing facilities at Titagarh and Uttarpara in West Bengal. The company has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in August in Singapore -- Titagarh Singapore Pte Ltd -- with a view to developing international markets for its products.

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