Polysius India has completed 32 years of existence in India and has gone on to become the most preferred cement supplier. Malay Das, Executive Director, Polysius India talks to Indian Cement Review about the host of products that the company offers and their future plans.Tell us about the range of products and services provided by Polysius India to cement manufacturers in India.Polysius India is a division of ThyssenKrupp Industries India and one of very few companies which can offer entire range of cement plant machinery starting from limestone crushing up to cement despatch. World class engineering capabilities is our strength based on which total cement manufacturing facility can be catered to from under one roof.Our range includes dynamic air separators, ball mills, vertical roller mills, high pressure grinding rolls (Polycom) for grinding of raw materials, fuel and clinker, preheater, rotary kiln, fuel burning systems and clinker cooler from pyro-processing sections. In addition, we also engineer and supply raw material and fuel blending systems, alternate fuel handling and conveying systems, robotic laboratory packages for analysis of samples (Polab) with different variants. As regards services, we offer services to upgrade, modernize & optimize the plants, and also provide supervision of erection and commissioning services.What are the various types of cement machinery manufactured by Polysius India? What is the size of the cement machinery market in India and what is the market share of Polysius India in cement machinery?
Traditionally addition of new capacities and expansion of existing capacities in India happen in a staggered way. In certain years, substantial capacities are ordered out and finalized whereas at other times very few orders are decided. As such size of cement machinery market is always fluctuating and does not follow any trend. Generally, 8 – 10 per cent year on year growth is the trend. Market share also varies from time to time. For example last two to three years, our share was 40 / 45 per cent. If market share is averaged out on a long term it would be of the order of 28 per cent – 30 per cent.How does Polysius India keep pace with technological developments in cement and cement machinery manufacturing? What is your R&D spend and what kind of innovative products or technologies has your R&D created?
Research & Development Centre of ThyssenKrupp Polysius group is based at Ennigerloh, near group headquarters at Beckum in Germany. ThyssenKrupp Polysius has a history of engineering excellence which is more than 150 years old, and it has evolved over these years by way of own research and developmental work. It has highly qualified professionals and specialized tools created with extensive planning and foresight for development of new products, technological upgradation of existing products based on the operational feedback.Many new products / equipments like different type of dynamic air separators, POLCAL calciner, new generation kiln burners have been developed at our R&D centre. Besides, they have also been successful in developing technologies to meet challenges of ever stringent environmental demands and norms.However major breakthrough was achieved by them when high pressure grinding roll (POLYCOM), new generation vertical roller mill (QUADROPOL) and POLYTRACK cooler without under grate spillage were developed and launched successfully.Which major cement manufacturing plants have you erected and commissioned till date? Which major cement companies in India and overseas are your clients and how do you plan to increase your clients in India and overseas?
Polysius India has been in the forefront of building the Indian cement industry for past 32 years and has been the preferred supplier of major cement producers within India like Ambuja Cement and ACC who are now part of Holcim group, India Cements, B.K. Birla group of companies, Jaiprakash Associates, Aditya Birla group. We have built many plants for these torchbearers of the Indian cement industry which speaks for itself about their faith in Polysius technology for meeting their complete requirements.Recent entrants in the field of cement production like Nirma, Wonder, Vicat of France, Goldstone, Nava Durga and Reliance Cementation, who have very ambitious growth plans, have trusted us as their long term growth partners.We have also succeeded in expanding our horizons beyond Indian boundaries by making successful forays in Middle East and South East Asia and African continent.Latest European (Polysius) technology, competitive Indian prices and top quality services have been the driving wheels of our growth in past and we are confident that they will drive our growth in times to come also. We believe in supporting our clients through prompt and effective after sales services which nurture a satisfied client who makes us partner in their further growth.Which regions in India are your major markets? How do you propose to penetrate other markets and expand your reach of products and services?
While we service the expansion efforts of existing customers, we add to our reference list new names also on regular basis. All major cement producers, by way of merger and acquisition and greenfield expansion routes have spread their manufacturing facilities across India. As our clients are spread across the length and breadth of the country, we are indirectly catering to the requirements of all regions within India. There are of course regional players, single plant entities etc. who are also our clients. They cater to the requirements of respective areas/region in which they are located.What kind of features do your cement plants and machinery have to make them sustainable and environment-friendly?
Cement production involves very energy and heat intensive process and its sustainability should be looked at from the point of view of conserving these scarce resources. Polysius backed by the extensive research and developmental efforts and engineering capabilities has been on the forefront in this area by introducing energy saving grinding systems like POLYCOM for finish grinding of raw material, modifying the burning system for fuels to make them suitable for accepting alternate / waste material as fuels and also development of waste heat recovery systems.Polysius cement plants are highly environment-friendly and meet all current world standards for dust particle emissions and NOx and SOx emissions. Special processes have been developed to keep NOx & SOx levels within prescribed levels.How extensive is your after-sales service and what is the response time for addressing the complaints of your clients?Prompt after sales service is a key to the satisfied client and we have always ensured that we have well trained and experienced engineers on our rolls to assist our clients during erection and commissioning phase of plants, and also for trouble shooting. Our engineers also receive specialized training at ThyssenKrupp Polysius offices in Germany as well as various plant sites.We back our clients all the way during difficult periods which is well known in the industry and much appreciated in view of the short response time. If necessary, specialists from Germany are also called in at short notice to ensure that client’s operations are back on track as fast as possible.What are your future plans for India and how do you propose to implement them?With our contemporary technology and first class manufacturing facilities we have already established ourselves as one of the top cement plant and equipment suppliers in India and South East Asia. We are now focusing on improving our market share further and remain the leader in years to follow. Our future plans for Polysius India also includes diversification in to mineral processing and beneficiation sector.