Pune to be Sandvik's global mining tools hub

Sandvik Asia commissioned on Tuesday its new manufacturing assembly centre for mining and construction equipment which will also act as the global sourcing hub for Sandvik worldwide.

Hakan Kingstedt, managing director and president, Sandvik Asia, said the plant and assembly centre would make mining equipment, including those used in excavation of rock and minerals.

"We will manufacture machines for underground hard-rock mining, underground soft-rock mining, surface mining and construction," Kingstedt said. The company has invested about Rs 6 crore to set up the plant.

In the construction segment, the company will make equipment for tunnelling, quarrying and recycling, GV Ramana Murthy, Sandvik's vice-president of construction equipment, said.

He said the company was looking at the opportunities offered by infrastructure projects such as roads and highways to sell its equipment like jaw-crushers.

Kingstedt said the manufacturing facility would cater to the rising demand from the Indian infrastructure sector and will meet the demand from other countries, especially the Asia-Pacific region. He said the company expects to export about half its production.

Kingstedt said the company has plans to expand capacities at its plants at Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh, Hosur in Tamil Nadu and Mehsana in Gujarat. Another plant for recycling carbide tools to recover tungsten will be commissioned in two months.

The company has also drawn up plans to cultivate human resources to run and service its equipment. For this, it has set up a training centre at Pune.

"The centre will also be used for training different areas of business," Kingstedt said, but did not disclose any figures. However, he said investments in Indian operations had been tripled in the last three years.