Timken bullish on wind energy

Hit by falling demand from the commercial vehicles, automotive and construction machinery sectors, Timken, the world's biggest ball bearings maker with revenues of close to $6 billion, is redoing its growth strategy in India and has identified wind energy sector as its thrust area.

The company is investing in research and development (R&D) at its Bangalore centre, which has over 400 employees, for manufacturing 3 metre bearings for clients who are into wind energy industry.

Speaking at the global mining summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Pierre Kocher, market manager of Timken, said, “We are going on focus on wind energy sector as this industry growth is projected at 10-15 per cent annually. The sectors that primarily used to drive our revenues like construction machinery and automotive industry, are stagnant, which automatically slows our revenues down. We automatically had to look at alternate sectors for growth.”

Each 3 metre ball bearing will cost upwards of $100,000.

Each windmill needs at least three ball bearings.

“Ball bearings are needed in high volumes in wind mills and each should last for 10-15 years, so quality assurance is very stringent,” Kocher said.

“We have about a dozen clients in wind energy. This sector has already generated revenues of close to $40 million this year globally,” Kocher informed.

The company is also beafing up its R&D for engineering sector. “Engineering clients are demanding more energy efficient products. So we will invest into making light-weight products, special design to address friction so that the machinery consumes less energy, among other product development plans,” Kocher said.

The company expects to close this calendar year at $108 million, up from $89 million last year.

Timken has invested close to $52 million into research and development in its centre in Bangalore.