V adodara-based Simem Construction & Environmental Engineering Pvt Ltd, one of the emerging players in concrete batching plants, plans to strengthen its presence in the Indian market. “We have taken Indian operations very seriously. In the long-term India is a market for us to stay and grow,” announced Rajesh Kawoor, Vice President (Sales & Marketing), Simem Construction & Environmental Engineering Pvt Ltd while talking on the sidelines of recently concluded EXCON in Bengaluru.

He adds, “We want to establish India as the second best after Italy. On this note we will be coming with a new greenfield plant with an investment of Rs 250 million, which will have much higher capacity than the existing plant. India is the only manufacturing plant outside Italy but strategically we will be doing major exports from India now.”

Simem has already introduced its Jumper series concrete batching plants with zero foundation. The company would like to produce the same range of products in the upcoming plant. “We will produce Jumper series concrete batching plants in the new plant and India will be the export hub for this product,” informed Kawoor.

Simem will cease production of Jumper series concrete batching plants in its plant in Italy. The company will also be manufacturing the Eagle batching plants at the new plant.

Features of Eagle batching plants
Seeing the demand for larger size batching plants for bigger projects, Simem has introduced Eagle batching plants. The compact batching plant, launched at EXCON, doesn’t require any foundation and can be mounted on a skid. Therefore it has the advantage of being mobile.

Eagle range of batching plants has been highly customised for the Indian market.  “We have introduced the control system which is user friendly. We have reduced the moving components compared with the conventional batching plants available in the market. This enables the customer to keep the maintenance cost at the minimum,” Kawoor said.   He further adds, “Compared to the earlier WB series, Eagle series is more economical. We have customised it to suit Indian conditions and brought to a reasonable pricing to suit the customers.”

Focus on domestic consumption
In India, demand for concrete is essentially changing. As many large-scale projects are in pipeline, there will be a huge requirement of concrete batching plants in India. “Logistically and strategically India’s base will help us in supplying to domestic market,” Kawoor said.

The concrete batching plants market in India is largely dominated by a few domestic players. “When we started in India, we were always considered as a top line product. It is well accepted by most of our customers. But the new development where all existing players are dominant and we are entering that sector, we are more emphasising in educating the customers about long term benefits of our plants like lower maintenance cost and low operating cost.”

Expanding business network
Simem has an aggressive plan of expanding business network across the country. Revealing this strategy, Kawoor said, “We have started the initiative to increase our dealer network and we will be strategically having our own employees all over India. Last six months we have increased four dealers in India and every month we will be having one dealer for new areas.”

India is the only manufacturing plant outside Italy but strategically we will be doing major exports from India now.

Rajesh Kawoor, Vice President (Sales & Marketing),
Simem Construction Environmental Engineering Pvt Ltd