“India has become the sought-out destination for raw castings and products like pumps and valves,” says Aniket Kulkarni, Head – Corporate Strategy & Business Development, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd.

The pumps and valves business in India is growing and this market is driven by the reduction in per capita water availability, rising urbanisation, infrastructure investment and industrialisation. Indian foundries have added capacities due to the closure of the foundries in the west. With this, India has become the sought-out destination for raw castings and products like pumps and valves. Pump and valve exports from India has grown by over two folds in the past few years. Most of the demands for pumps and valves in India are met with the products made in India. The Indian market is highly competitive with growing presence of multinational players. With the slowdown in Europe, US and Far East, BRICS is the market for the multi-national companies. There is an increasing awareness of energy-efficient pumping solutions in India, and Kirloskar Brothers Limited is at the forefront of providing energy efficient solutions to the market.

Kirloskar products
KBL offerings include pumps, valves, hydro turbines and motors. The company can manufacture pumps for head up to 1,200 metres and discharge up to 120,000 cubic m/hr, and valves of size up to 5 metres. KBL’s area of interest also includes hydro turbines up to 25 MW. KBL pumps and valves handle a variety of fluids, from water to highly corrosive ones, in different segments like energy, municipal water and wastewater, irrigation, oil and gas, marine, defence, industries, building and construction, agriculture and domestic. Its pump offerings include end-suction pumps, process pumps, horizontal split-case pumps, mixed flow pumps, solid handling pumps, multistage and multi-stage multi-outlet pumps, sump pumps, monobloc pumps, submersible pumps, self-priming pumps, jet pumps, solar pumps, autoprime pumps, vertical turbine pumps, condensate extraction pumps, canned motor pumps, concrete volute pumps and pump as a turbine. Its valve offerings include cast steel and forged steel gate, globe, check valves, tamper proof kinetic air valves, butterfly valves, ball valves, kinetic air valves, non-return valves, foot valves, steam trap device, sluice valves, suction diffuser and triple duty valves.

Demand for pumps and valves
The demand for pumps and valves is expected to rise with increasing population, urbanisation and industrialisation. The organised pump market and valve market in India is about Rs 8,500 crore and Rs 10,000 crore, respectively. The pump market is expected to grow by 6.5 per cent, while the valve market is expected to grow by 7.1 per cent till 2017.

Innovative KBL
KBL has always been on the forefront in introducing engineering innovations, from India’s first iron plough to India’s first Concrete Volute Pump (CVP). CVPs are the most suitable pumping option from the techno-economic consideration for handling large volumes of water. Multi-Stage Multi-Outlet (MSMO) pumps is a KBL product introduced in Building and Construction Sector to save precious space for builders, developers and contractors. The focus on wire to water efficiency over entire life has given birth to Lowest Life Cycle Cost (LLC) series pumps. With the development of innovative Solar Power Conditioning Unit, the Jalverter, KBL has entered in the solar pumping field, commissioning more than 400 solar pumps in India.

KBL offers solar pump from
0.5 HP to 100 HP. All the innovations at KBL are the outcome of our endeavour to think futuristic and continuously augment our capability to be market ready.

KBL in different segments
KBL operates in 8 different market segments; namely, power, water, irrigation, industry, building and construction, gas oil and defence, agriculture and domestic. KBL’s pumps range from 0.1 kW to 26,000 kW. Kirloskar pumps cater to various applications like lift irrigation, water supply, wastewater treatment, desalination, refinery onshore and offshore, petrochemical, fertiliser, on-board and onshore defence, fire fighting, HVAC, chemical handling, small boiler feed, and other process and utility applications. KBL is one of the India’s largest manufacturers and exporters of centrifugal pumps.