Vivek D Kumthekar, Business Head – Milling & Threading Products, LMT (India) India Pvt Ltd
Tell us more about your milling and threading technology…
LMT Tools is headquartered in Germany with manufacturing plants in Germany, France, USA and India. The company manufactures a wide range of cutting tools which includes gear hobs, thread rolling systems, special automotive tooling, milling & tapping tools etc We also have complete range of tools for for die and mould industry.
How would you describe the Indian die mould industry?
Indian die mould industry is very competitive. The industry is well developed in terms of technology; the facilities available in India can be compared with best in the world. The only challenge I see is the delivery time and the price sensitive market.
Various die mould makers are finding it difficult to compete with companies from Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, etc. Being a tooling solution provider, do you face such competition?
Like the die mould makers we also face competition from various suppliers .We focus on technology and offering complete solution with application support to differentiate ourselves
Other challenges that you have witnessed in India…
I think Indian customers are tech savvy and are open to adopt latest technologies, be it big automotive manufacturers or SMEs. We have to reach them in time and offer them the latest technologies .This sometimes takes time but it is a challenge as well as opportunity
Companies from Korea, Taiwan and China have become very aggressive with their cost effective solutions. India being a price sensitive country, how do you manage the competition?
Definitely the selling and marketing efforts go up. If you see any product, be it business or consumer products, all kinds of products are available at different price levels and all of them have a market share. Yes, the tools from these countries are being used by many customers but there is a huge section of the industry that values what we can offer
India is also home to all big cutting tool manufacturers. How do you tackle competition there?
We have the best of the technology for the cutting tools which is widely appreciated in Europe and many other markets .We introduce these tools in India as early as possible. We have trained manpower who are able to demonstrate the end-users about these technologies. This coupled with customer support helps us to tackle the competition
Tell us about your R&D activities?
In cutting tool industry new geometries and coatings matter the most. We have a very strong R&D team in Germany who are continuously working on new geometries and coatings ,designs
Your future plans for India…
We have a manufacturing setup in India for gear hob manufacturing. We are looking at various other products which can be manufactured in India.
We have strong sales network consisting of our own engineers and channel partners and through them we will be continuously working to enhance our offerings .
