Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised an international seminar on the Indian valve industry – Advantage India 2007 – in Mumbai, on 5 December 2007. The seminar focused on the requirements of the customers and the response from the Indian as well as global valve industry.
Mr. Rohit Bhardwaj, ED (Maintenance & Inspection and Incharge Safety, Health & Environment), IndianOil Corporation, was the chief guest. The delegates from end-user industries as well as the valves fraternity was welcomed by Mr. A. K. Banerjee, Vice President, Valves Business Group, L&T. Mr. Uma Shankar, Chairman & Managing Director, Advance Valves, delivered the keynote address.
Speakers included personnel from IndianOil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Gas Authority of India, Reliance Industries, Mazagon Docks, Fluid Control Research Institute, Engineers India Limited, Bechtel, Auma, Festo, Ion Exchange as well as Audco India Limited.
Transcript of the welcome address delivered by Mr. A. K. Banerjee, Chairman CII Valve Division & Vice President, Valves Business Group, L&T, is given below.
The valve industry in India is heterogeneous, comprising Indian engineering conglomerates, multi-national companies with Indian operations, large professionally managed private companies, family-owned outfits – all with significant export business – and many small companies catering to the Indian domestic market. Each of these segments have different aspirations and growth strategies, and the challenges they face are indeed very different. CII’s Valve Division strives to address the varied concerns of this one billion dollar industry, and I am glad to announce that we have made substantial progress in the last two years.
In fact, in recognition of our efforts to strengthen the valve industry, Valve World – the pre-eminent global valve industry expo and conference – invited me in my capacity as the Chairman of CII Valves Division to deliver the keynote address at their plenary session in Netherlands last year.
As you are aware, many Indian valve majors are emerging as global players migrating from being hardware suppliers to providers of complete flow-control solutions. For this segment, the key priorities are infusion of new technology, and enhancement of product portfolio as well as market coverage – and to accomplish this many organisations are actively pursuing inorganic growth opportunities on the M&A route. At the other end of the spectrum are small organisations whose very existence is threatened by the influx of global competition brought about by reduced import tariffs. In short, the Indian valve industry is fragmented, applications and customer-base are diverse, and there is a large variance in manufacturing and quality assurance capabilities as well as product quality.
Over the last two years, CII Valve Division has been working with the manufacturers and domain specialists from user industries, to enhance the competitiveness of the industry. We have launched quality upgradation programmes, programmes on manufacturing excellence and cluster development.We have also launched an initiative for a price escalation mechanism that would help reduce the adverse effect of the volatility of metal prices on the valve suppliers.
The strengthening Rupee has once again brought to fore the need to significantly reduce cost in order to retain our position in the international market. Procuring castings and components from low-cost economies and selective outsourcing are the order of the day. In fact, as a part of our cost reduction strategy, L&T has commissioned a grass root valve manufacturing plant in China for commodity valves.
We are glad that so many of our customers are present here today. Forums such as this provide an opportunity for the valve fraternity to interact with you and understand your requirements better. And in order to ensure that more valve suppliers benefit from the wisdom of our valued customers, we are planning a series of buyer-seller meets across the country.
I hope the deliberations and interactions that we have today would help us move from Advantage India to Game-Set-and-Match India.
