Concreting equipment manufacturing company Schwing Stetter on Monday launched 19 new products at the Excon 2011 show here. Excon 2011 is an exhibition of the construction equipment industry, organised once in two years by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The 19 products take the product portfolio of Schwing Stetter to 61. All but two of them will be produced in India, at the company's plant in Chennai.

Schwing Stetter's Managing Director, Mr Anand Sundaresan, told Business Line that the company would invest about Rs 80 crore between now and the end of 2012 in expansion.

The investment programme is already underway and a new plant is coming up adjacent to the existing plant near Chennai, he said.

Among the products launched is ‘Nimo', a small LCV-mounted ready-mix concrete machine that can work in cities during the day time (large trucks are not allowed in major cities except in the nights.)

While the Nimo (named for its size after the famous piscine protagonist in the movie Finding Nemo ) is meant for small volume operations, at the other end of the product offering, is a concrete laying machine that produces its own ice to mix with cement instead of water.

Cement mixing with water gives rise to an exogenous reaction (that produces heat) and as a result it takes a long time for the concrete to cool. Between these two products there are 17 others meant for niche applications such as construction of large dams, tunnelling and high-rise buildings. One of them (imported) can lay concrete at a height of 43 metres.

Schwing Stetter, a multinational of German origin, has been in India (Chennai) for a little over a decade now. In the current year, it expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 1,100 crore.

The topline is expected to grow at a faster clip in the coming years because, apart from the aid of new products launched today, “our parent company has asked us to cater to the markets of South-East Asia and SAARC countries too,” Mr Sundaresan said.

mramesh@thehindu.co.in

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