Anil Choudhari, CEO, Fatty Tuna India Pvt Ltd
FEMCO’s journey in India
FEMCO has been serving its customers in India for a long now and they are all happy with our service. Looking at the demand and growth happening in the Indian manufacturing industry, FEMCO incorporated FEMCO India (M/S Fatty Tuna India Private Limited) during January 2011. Our main aim is to sell and distribute a complete line of CNC Machine tools, which includes CNC horizontal lathes, CNC vertical lathes, CNC horizontal boring mills, CNC vertical machining centres and CNC wheel turning machines in order to serve our customers better. After incorporating FEMCO India, we believe we have managed to win more confidence from the Indian industry on our services. Sensing the growing demand in the industry later during 2013, we established a sophisticated technology centre India’s in one of the biggest industrial hub, Pune. Our technology centre is probably the first technology centre from any Taiwanese company here.
Coming to manpower, I would like to say that we have highly experienced manpower with average of 10 years of experience. They have the knowledge of machines as well as the market. Apart from this, our engineers are trained in Taiwan.
Starting the technology centre
While investing in a machine, buyers always look at the service support for future. They believe more in manufacturers as compared to the dealers. After establishing the technology centre, customers showed more confidence on us. This is an investment that we have done looking at the future and the growing demand in the Indian industry. Machine tool purchases are capital investments and customers look for long term service support & spare spare parts availability.
The agreement with KAFO
At FEMCO, we have a range of machines such as high-end boring machine, vertical turning machine and CNC lathes, Alloy wheel machines for 2 or 4-wheeler. We also provide a complete gantry solution and robotic solution for alloy wheel. Other machines like VMC, HMC and double column machining centre that we sell in India are from KAFO. We are the authorized dealer for KAFO is the western & south part of the country.. With KAFO we have an array of machines in our basket.
Emerging sectors for machine tool industry
The Government of India issued a circular on anti-dumping duty for alloy wheel import, this has provided the Indian alloy wheel manufacturers ample growth opportunity, but for that they will have to expand their capacity. Currently 80% of these wheels in India are imported from countries like China and Thailand, but we feel one year down the line, Indian manufacturers will have to increase their capacity to tap the market in order to brush shoulders with the other nations. This is very big opportunity for companies like ours.
Apart from this, we see a very good future for the valve industry. Indian valve industry is growing rapidly and that is where we see good demand coming from. Majority of the valve manufactured in India are exported. We have specific machine with facing head designed for valve machining wherein turning & milling operations are combined reducing no of set ups and machines
Automotive is now stagnant and we have not really witnesses much growth since last 2 years. Machine tools that are sold in automotive companies are either sold to replace the old one, or upgrade the technology level. We don’t see much demand in automotive industry, but on the other hand heavy engineering is showing growth opportunities.
Current scenario
Indian industry is growing. Home grown manufacturers are adopting latest technology and increasing capacity, but some technologies are still imported. Indian machines are good when one is looking for cost effective products, but when it comes to machines for heavy engineering market the Indian industry needs to buck up. We have also noticed that our kind of imported machines are economical than the Indian machine, reason being Indian manufacturers lack the capacity to come up with big machines, but for foreign player it’s very easy and less time consuming as they have years of experience in manufacturing these machines.
There are few manufacturers in India who have grown a lot and adding many products but when buyer needs high accuracy, They are still dependent on imported machines. They are capable of manufacturing of small machine as the volumes are very high so probably they don’t look at the high end machine or heavy machines.
Reduce dependency on import
We see imports majorly in the sectors where Indians players lag such as high-end multi axis machine, heavy machine and precision machines for aerospace components, etc. Indians have to invest more in research activities. If you look at the recession periods, machine tool industry was the one that was affected first and was able to overcome last. This is a major challenge for small companies. Some time getting the know-how and technology is very difficult from reputed global machine tool builders ., So the Indians have to develop much on their own and that will take some time, but will happen.
In other sectors, we can see there are various collaborations and joint ventures with global players which helps in technology transfer, but when it comes to the machine tool industry such things are very rare. India has to achieve a lot by hard work and dedication, just the way Japan, Germany and Taiwan among others have achieved over the years.
Indian customers & perceptions
A major problem that the Indian companies face is availability of skilled manpower. To address this problem various companies are moving towards semi automation or fully automated solutions.
Post-election scenario
I think there is more confidence in the industry. Users are hopeful that INR will stabilize so that imports of machine tools will become economical.
Future plan
After establishing the technology centre, we are now planning to keep more demo machines for pre-order test cut trials to build confidence in customers. We will keep critical spare parts to support customers in shortest possible time.
We are planning to manufacture machines required for alloy wheel machining. Since the Government of India has already issued a circular of anti-dumping of importing of alloy wheels, there will be good demand as well as opportunity for us to produce machines in India. Making in India will make us more competitive and we will be able to provide better sales & service support.
