ATS Elgi to install new sheet metal and robotic welding lines

November 7, 2013: Coimbatore-based garage equipment manufacturer ATS Elgi is to soon install a new sheet metal line and a robotic welding line in its facility in the city. Machinery for the lines is currently undergoing assembly off-site and will start its functioning come February 2014.

The company will use these new lines to boost its credentials in the export market. At present, the company exports in small numbers to India’s neighbouring countries and a few countries in the Middle-East. The new lines are being installed after receiving some solid response from potential clients in Europe.

Refusing to divulge the investment value for these new lines, Ramesh Ponnuswami, managing director, told Autocar Professional that the lines will be used to produce the company’s current product portfolio too and that “this will result in a step up in terms of weld quality for the domestic market.”

Exports, at present, contribute around 5-7 percent of the company’s total turnover; ATS Elgi clocked Rs 144 crore in 2012-13. However, given that the company’s had grown by around 10 percent in the last fiscal, Ponnuswami is confident that even if the export contribution might remain the same, it will increase in terms of value.

ATS Elgi is also confident of securing CE Certification, a mandatory requirement for selling certain products in the EU, in “A month or two,” according to Ponnuswami.

The company manufactures or deals in garage equipment under eight verticals: lifting equipment, body shop equipment, wheel servicing equipment, washing equipment, lube equipment, diagnostic equipment, pneumatic tools, and special products.

KARTHIK H