HJS Emission eyes clean air dividend

HJS Emission Technology India wants to grab a sizeable share of the business for particulate filters and other emission-related products from India’s commercial vehicle sector. The Bangalore-based company hopes to leverage India’s ongoing emission legislation, in particular, the implementation of Bharat Stage IV norms and has set up a sales and procurement office in the garden city.

In a telephonic interview from Germany, Peter Neumann, director sales – Indian projects, told Autocar Professional that HJS has entered into a contract manufacturing arrangement with an Indian company to manufacture particulate filters for use by light commercial vehicles.

Part of HJS Emission Technology, a midsized German company with an estimated turnover of euro 92-100 million, the company has been operational in India since 2008 but only set up its subsidiary in March 2011. Besides sales and corporate staff in Bangalore, the company also has an in-house applications engineer to provide technical support to Indian customers.

Neumann said the company has made estimated investments in India to the tune of euro 2-3 million to set up base in India and this figure is inclusive of the key projects that it has obtained with Swaraj Mazda and Eicher. Indeed, the bus range of both products have BS IV- compliant vehicles using HJS’s partial flow SMF technology.

The company has so far supplied a couple of thousand filters but as the BS IV legislation spreads, (it is currently applicable to 12 mega cities), the company hopes to supply 100,000 particulate filters in a year. At present, two parallel legislations exist (BS III nation-wide and BS IV in the mega cities) but with more uniform legislation, the numbers will go up and costs down.

EJS Emission has two technologies to handle diesel-related emission problems. The first is EGR + DOC + Partial Flow SMF (Sintered Metal Filter) that can be applied to existing engines with low-cost mechanical fuel injection or common-rail systems. The second is DOC+ SCR that requires new engines with common-rail injection and allows high peak in-cylinder pressure, to achieve the benefit of better fuel consumption.While the company can offer both technologies, HJS has started with Partial Flow SMF because most LCVs and MCVs will go with EGR technology and require DOC and open filters. The need for such vehicles (buses) is already evident in the big cities, the company said.

SCR technology requires urea but given the availability and costs, this is not on the agenda now. In addition, the introduction of BS IV legislation, nationwide, is still open. Therefore, SCR introduction is expected to take a while.

Meanwhile, HJS Emission will take part in next month’s Auto Expo in Delhi and will have on display a range of filters for 5 Kw engines to 350 Kw engines. "The expo will give us an opportunity to make potential customers aware of the company’s range," Neumann said.

Since its entry into India, HJS has focused on getting new customers and “creating in customers the necessary confidence and building potential business relationships”.

He admitted the company has been rather late setting up shop in India wants to clearly understand the Indian way of doing business and adapt its business accordingly.

Typically, when a foreign company sets up base in India, the wider Asian market is always on the horizon. HJS admits to this as well but insists that India is important. To put things in perspective, he says HJS has no corporate set-up or manufacturing presence in China. Neumann added that the preference for India stemmed from the fact that India is closer to the European model and way of doing business and familiarity with English language here has been a comfort factor.

While HJS’s main growth driver is the BS IV regime, at present, there are some concerns at the current slowdown in the economy. But it is only a matter of time before BS IV norms will become more widespread and the company is likely to look at enhancing its India relationships when that happens.