Atlas Copco Parent To Cart Mining Facility To Pune

Atlas Copco of Sweden, parent company of Atlas Copco (India) (ACIL), plans to shift operations of its construction and mining tools unit to Pune by the end of this year.

Kishore Sidhwani, general manager, construction and mining technique division of ACIL, said this was a fall out of the worldwide restructuring exercise undertaken by the group. ACIL will now be the only subsidiary to manufacture tools for Atlas Copco's world market.

The global recast includes shutting down of three plants, one in South Africa, and two in Sweden. Machinery from the Swedish plant is being shifted to India due to the inherent cost advantage. Manufacturing tools locally means low costs, which are the lowest in the world.

Shifting operations to Pune, which harbours major automobile manufacturers, will result in lower prices of components from vendors who manufacture both pneumatic and wagon drilling equipment, as well as chipping hammers.

ACIL has also modernised its existing operations, which has resulted in lowering the flow-time. The company has adopted the `Kabana' way of inventory system, which helps in maintaining a minimum level of raw material inventory.

After the completion of the restructuring, around 40 per cent of the production from the unit will be exported.

According to Sidhwani, ACIL has plans to launch new products, exclusively, for the export market, mainly multipurpose waterwell drills and reverse process drills. It plans to introduce around 14 new products in the next 18 months and nearly eight new products in the current year itself. ACIL has already started production of few equipments like pneumatic breakers and some lubricating machinery for exports.

However, as regards the domestic market, Sidhwani said that sales are not very encouraging due to slowdown in the economy. The company has received orders for three power projects in the last two months and expects three more orders by the year-end.