The Hindu Business Line : Elecon investing Rs 100 cr in windmill gearbox facility

Anand (Gujarat), Feb. 15 Elecon Engineering Company Ltd, maker of material handling equipment, industrial gear and transmission products, would invest nearly Rs 200 crore in the next two years to expand capacities, particularly in windmill gearbox manufacturing.

The company is investing about Rs 100 crore in a windmill gearbox manufacturing facility which will be ready by June this year, Mr Prayasvin B. Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, told Business Line here. An equal amount would be invested next year as capital investment in materials handling equipment and gear divisions.

Elecon’s group company for marketing and servicing, Emtici Engineering Ltd, had entered the market of wind turbine generators of 660 KW and planned production of wind turbine gearboxes up to 2 MW range.

The wind turbine generator gearbox service centre would be located near Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The Indian market for windmill gearboxes, currently imported, is Rs 500 crore and rising. The initial turnover for the first full year of operations in windmill gearbox production in 2008-09 is expected to be Rs 110 crore.

Turnover

Elecon, which has an order book worth nearly Rs 1,400 crore, expects its turnover to increase from Rs 723 crore in 2006-07 to around Rs 925 crore this fiscal and to Rs 1,400 crore in 2008-09 with a current growth rate of 40 per cent, said Mr Hemendra C. Shah, Vice-President (Commercial) and CFO.

Seventy per cent of Elecon’s revenue comes from the power sector, followed by steel, mining, cement and fertilisers. Its exports are expected to be nearly Rs 35 crore this year, compared to Rs 24 crore last year.

Last year, Elecon signed a technical contract agreement with Renk AG, Germany, for vertical roller mill (VRM) drive gearboxes providing for import of technical expertise to design and manufacture two stages bevel planetary type gearboxes for vertical roller mills used in the cement and coal mills.

The agreement is a full flagged technical tie-up which includes back-to-back guarantee from the German company. “Using their expertise and Elecon’s technology, we will be the first company in India to manufacture such gearboxes,” Mr Patel said.

Major endeavours

Elecon was also the only engineering company in India to bag a prestigious contract for supplying the 85-tonne main propulsion gearboxes for the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier. This was Elecon’s second major endeavour in sophisticated marine gears technology after successful delivery of gearboxes for the Indian Navy’s new stealth warships under construction at Mazgaon Docks Ltd, Goa.

Mr Patel said it was in keeping with its growth and business strategy that Elecon has expanded its current business portfolio by entering the windmills and windmill gearbox segment and signed licence agreement with Turbowinds NV, Belgium, for technology tie-up for the windmill farms.

Elecon has also signed an agreement with C-WET for certification of 600-KW windmills. It plans to sell 50 units in a year and will go up to 300 units per year in a phased manner.

Its foray into the windmill segment was part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) it signed last year with the Gujarat Government to invest around Rs 400 crore in projects across the region.

More Stories on : New Projects | Engineering | Non-conventional Energy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page