Bharaj to invest in new plant in Mumbai

Bharaj, which makes rubber processing machinery that helps convert rubber into finished tyre products for tyre makers, has ambitious growth plans. The company plans to undertake turnkey projects for its clientele and showcased its products at the Tyre Expo held earlier this month in Delhi where it hoped to woo big tyre manufacturers like MRF and Continental for large orders.

A supplier of capital equipment to the automotive, footwear and pharma industries, the company is bullish about increasing its automotive business contribution to 50 percent over the next 2 years from the current 20 percent.

To facilitate this, it is setting up a new plant that will be much larger than its existing one in Mumbai. According to Amardeep Singh Bharaj, director of Bharaj (pictured below), it will be the largest in the country for manufacturing additional capital machinery. 

Involving an investment of Rs 12-15 crore funded through internal accruals and bank loans, it will be functional by end-2018 and help hike the company’s turnover to Rs 100 crore from the current Rs 30 crore.

It will produce an annual 100 units each of various equipment such as extruders, calendar lines, bale cutters and mixing mills for processing units amongst others. Bharaj says this is a fast-growing segment and the tyre industry has not been affected too much by the slowdown in the last couple of years. Hence it offers good potential for growth.

Bharaj exports about 45 percent of its high-end equipment to customers in China, USA, UK, France, Australia and other overseas markets. This equipment, the company claims, meet all the safety standards required by these countries.

Meanwhile, the upcoming Mumbai plant will have separate units for domestic and export requirements. Overseas customers include a mix of industries and tyre companies searching for capital machinery. Also, with many players having downed their shutters, an opening has been created in markets like aerospace and the components space.

While the tyre industry in Sri Lanka buys a lot of equipment from Bharaj, US and UK clients focus more on precision parts. Bharaj supplies equipment used by Rolls-Royce to make engine parts for aircraft.

Bharaj also supplies the machinery to leading rubber parts manufacturer Trelleborg globally which in turn produces rubber gaskets for Rolls-Royce. 

Going forward, Bharaj hopes to evolve into a single-source supplier for building entire assembly lines instead of just supplying part machinery.