Honeywell bullish, sees growth across infra, energy transition, automation

Industrial technology firm Honeywell is bullish on the Indian market and sees growth opportunities across segments mainly infrastructure development, energy transition projects, automation etc in the country to drive growth, a top official of the company said on Wednesday.

Honeywell India President Rajesh Rege said that India looks to be a brighter spot in the global economic landscape based on GDP data that is coming from experts.

According to the Reserve Bank, the real GDP growth for 2022-23 is projected at 6.8 per cent with the third quarter at 4.4 per cent and the fourth quarter at 4.2 per cent, with risks evenly balanced. Real GDP growth is projected at 7.1 per cent for the first quarter of 2023-24.

Rege, however, expressed concern about the rupee devaluation.

"I see India as an opportunity. I see India having growth. I am not concerned. One area that could have been better is the slide in the rupee that we had," he said.

Honeywell has a business of around USD 1 billion in India which includes the sales generated from the Indian market and excludes export services.

"We help build airports, refineries, smart cities, renewables, automation, life sciences etc. These are the areas which are driving growth for us. Besides the government, corporations are investing in renewable space. Big corporations have ambitious plans on new and renewable energy," Rege said.

He said the company's advanced material business, which provides solutions to pharma and life sciences, is seeing a huge uptake in India and also there is an upswing in aero traffic which is driving growth for the company.

Rege announced that the company will be setting up a sustainability centre of excellence in Madurai in the January-March 2023 quarter.

"We have around 14,000 people in India. Some of the people will be repurposed for this centre and there will be fresh hiring as per need basis," Rege said.

Honeywell Automation India Managing Director Ashish Gaikwad said the performance materials and technologies business contributes 45 per cent of the total domestic sales of the company.

He said that the company has been working on industrial automation for the last several years and the rollout of the 5G network will make sensors more active and push automation across enterprises.

"5G that we are excited about is for private enterprise networks. In large plants, 5G will enable setting up sensors across all nooks and corners to collect data that will give insight. It will be able to avoid or detect accidents or loss of production. These things will become much more common," Gaikwad said.