Pearlite bags Siam Kubota export order

Shimoga-based Pearlite Liners has been validated by Siam Kubota of Thailand to source liners for its engines. Siam Kubota, which makes a variety of engines for different applications including tractors and boats, has evinced interest to source 20,000 units initially. According to G K Divekar, managing director, an order is expected in a couple of weeks and sourcing volumes are slated to gradually increase to reach 100,000 units per annum with Pearlite eventually becoming the single source supplier for the components.

Exports are not new to Pearlite which also caters to Ashok Leyland, BEML, Greaves, HM, Mahindra & Mahindra and KOEL. The company has been exporting air-cooled and wet liners to Duraldur of Italy, which in turn supplies to SAME Deutz Fahr worldwide. It supplies about 1.5 lakh pieces annually comprising five varieties; these constitute about 10 percent of the total sales from Duraldur. The Italian company is keen to increase supplies, for which Pearlite plans to expand capacity. Since it already has about 40 percent spare capacity in its foundry, it will focus on increasing machining operations. The expansion programme will involve inducting continuous mixture for sand operations, sand reclamation, plateau honing and CNC machining. And, testing equipment will be upgraded to cater to the increasing customer expectations, says Divekar.

The project will become operational by October. Recently the company has entered the marine business by supplying 300 liners in 11 types to Funditesa Sanjurjo of Spain. Pearlite has also started supplying four varieties of air-cooled liners to Deutz Diter of Spain. Though volumes are low, Pearlite is a single source now. “When we approached them, they had refused to even consider us. However, after we sent the pilot batch, Deutz Diter stopped the local supply and placed orders with us, airlifting its initial requirements for about four months,” says Divekar.

Recently the company has entered the US market by supplying liners to Kraus International, which supplies to Tier-1 major Federal Mogul. Since January, it has been sending one container (2100 pieces) per month, with plans to double the same soon. At present Pearlite is supplying one type of liner and has developed eight more. It hopes to get the order soon, following which regular supply will commence from July 2006 with a cumulative volume of 10,000 units per month, says Divekar.

On the domestic front, Ashok Leyland has zeroed in on Pearlite to source liners for its Hino Euro III engines. Developing this product has been a challenge as the material has a minimum of 280 mh (mineral hardness) versus 260 mh for conventional liners, which makes machining it difficult. However, the liner has high wear and tear resistance. Caterpillar India too has approved Pearlite for global supply. And, Burckhardt Compressors, a Swiss company operating out of Pune manufacturing high pressure and precision compressors for several critical applications including submarine, is also procuring parts from Pearlite. For sustained quality, Pearlite banks heavily on the ‘shop-in-shop’ concept. In order to develop its supplier base, the company encourages entrepreneurs to set up shop within its premises by providing space, uninterrupted electricity and orders.