Steel Insights, April 2017 49

InTERvIEw

What sort of a tie-up does Essae Digitronics have with Kanawha Scales & Systems of West Virginia?

Essae Digitronics Private is a licensed partner of Kanawha Scales & Systems. We have an exclusive manufacturing agreement for high-speed rail wagon load-out systems in India using the technical know-how from Kanawha Scales and Systems of the United States.

Kanawha has designed, built and commissioned over 80 percent of load-out systems worldwide for varied industries such as mining and minerals.

However, we cannot sell outside India. We have manufacturing facilities within

India. These are all big equipment, hence, we cannot import the whole machine, these being huge steel structures in themselves. So, Kanawha has agreed to give us the licence to make mainly the mechanical parts in India.

Also, the designs of the chutes etc can be done in India. The critical components, design engineering, software etc come from the US. That apart, we

also provide the after-sales service and training support. These aspects are equally important because, if there is no after-sales-service back-up then it is pointless buying any equipment. And today life-cycle maintenance cost has become very important.

Our manufacturing facilities are located in Bangalore and our loading systems are primarily for bulk materials like coal, coking coal, iron ore, limestone, lignite and many more.

We have more than 240 installations globally, across countries like the US, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, China, Australia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and India.

In the US, our installations are mainly for coal.

In China, our installations have been set up at ports which handle coal. When it comes to ports, it is challenging to design the machines since one does not know the type of coal it will handle but we are able to design our machines so that they can deal with diverse types of the fuel, containing varying degrees of moisture, etc.

What is your product portfolio like?

Truck and train loading for all the bulk materials I have already mentioned. All our loaders come with certificates of conformance from the National Conformance of Weights and Measures. Our fully automated rapid-load out systems comply with OIMLR-76 requirements providing accuracy of ±350 kg/wagon and come with sophisticated reporting capabilities that are un-matched in the industry offering a real-time analysis of loading performance.

What is your exposure to iron ore and coal like?

In India, percentage-wise, around 80 percent of the business comes from the iron ore sector, and the balance 20 percent from coal. We have supplied only one system for a coal project, which is at one of the EMTA mines.

What sort of challenges and opportunities do you see for your business in India?

See, the mining sector is now opening up… though the regulations are taking time. But once the environment and other clearance hurdles are in place and land acquisition and local issues are sorted out, as well as issues between the states and Centre and licensing of mines becomes easy then the sector will see a boom. But these obstacles are taking time to clear up. However, I strongly feel, with clarity on the regulations, there will be positive signals in the mining sector.

But how difficult is it to do business in India? Are there enough ease of doing business pointers?

We are already talking to a lot of these companies which have been awarded mines in the e-auctions held a couple of years back. We feel it is much safer to invest in India now.

In India, the main issue is that prospective clients do not generally evaluate a product – as to whether the promises we make on our products are correct or not. They often say it is not relevant or dither over sending across personnel to verify the promises made by a machine manufacturer.

Essae mulls BOT model for load installations

Essae Digitronics, through a licensed partnership with Kanawha Scales & Systems of West Virginia, US, has brought truck

and train loading installations for bulk materials like iron ore, coal, limestone etc to India. While the critical components, design engineering, software etc come from Kanawha in the US, Essae manufactures mainly the mechanical parts in India. Now, Essae is now betting big on the mining sector

and looking at the build-operate-transfer and rental models, as part of its expansion plans, B F Thomson, Vice-President, Essae Digitronics, tells Madhumita Mookerji.

Excerpts from an interview: