India's Reinhardt Roto-Machines is expanding its operations by setting up a new plant there.
The rotomolding machine and equipment maker is a joint venture between Ernst Reinhardt GmbH of Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany; Rijsholt BV of Deventer, Netherlands; and Indian partners Dhanu Patell and Harleen Chawla.
Roto-Machines is set to produce coating lines and slush molding lines at a plant being established in Vadodara, India. The 17,200-square-foot facility will be located next to the company's existing plant of the same size.
“The machinery is arriving and the facility [probably will] commence production by the middle of 2012,” Patell said in a telephone interview from Vadodara. The original plant is around two decades old.
Roto-Machines has procured a computer numerically controlled turning center, Demag cranes, and mig (metal inert gas) and pulse welding equipment for the new plant. “We will be able to start production of the new portfolio of equipment with around 40 percent import content. The software, fabrication, machining, assembly and installation will be done at our plant.”
Ernst Reinhardt GmbH and Reinhardt Roto-Machines signed an agreement recently in Bangalore to further their cooperation. The upcoming plant will act as an extension of Reinhardt GmbH in India.
“The association is confined to technical know-how only, as there is no equity participation from the German company,” Patell said.
Roto-Machines caters to the plastics processing industry, with clientele mainly consisting of job coaters or vendors to automotive OEMs.
Some of the important clients in the Indian plastics industry include Sintex India, OK Play India Ltd. and Neelkamal Plastics, Patell said. Moreover, with global automobile OEMs setting up bases in India, specifications and quality demands are increasing and driving the demand for good equipment.
The existing plant manufactures rotomolding lines used to make polyethylene products including water tanks, garbage bins and recycling plants. The new plant will produce coating lines and PVC slush molding lines, he added.
Slush molding is used to make precision-sintered skins for vehicle interior components such as instrument panels, glove box covers and door panels. Patell said the average car contains about 35 pounds of slush molded products.
The new plant will cater to the global market. “Currently, we are exporting to almost 30 countries, right from Brazil to Australia. We are also extending our reach in and out of Europe through the new plant,” Patell said.
Ernst Reinhardt has only one production facility in Germany, and the Indian plant will be its first outside Germany. The advantages of having a factory in India are lower production costs and access to Australia, China, the Middle East and Africa. India is competitive pricewise, as the same line costs 30 percent less in India than in Europe, and the delivery time to many parts of the world is shorter, Patell said.
Ernst Reinhardt GmbH designs and builds industrial furnaces; dryers; and heat-treatment, coating and slush molding systems.
