SEW to set up new facility with Rs 50 cr investment

Rajkot-based Singhal Power Presses, known as SEW Power Presses — manufacturers of mechanical pneumatics cross shaft and small-to-larger presses ranging from 25-tonne, up to 800-tonne power presses, is planning to set up a new facility at Rajkot, with an investment of Rs 50 crore, a top executive said.

Talking to Deccan Herald on the sidelines of Imtex Forming 2016, Singhal Power Presses Director Harmeet Singh Chawla said, “Currently, we have one facility in Rajkot. We plan to invest Rs 50 crore in a new facility on 10 acres of land by April 2017, which will also come up in Rajkot, and will help enhance production capacity.”
Chawla explained, “As of now, we have production capacity of manufacturing 30 machines per month. With the new unit in the pipeline, we can manufacture 50-75 additional machines per month. The lead time to customers will be quicker, and aid us in catering to export markets.”

“With the new unit, we will be able to produce new products. Right now, we are manufacturing 600-tonne mechanical presses. In the new unit, we will manufacture anywhere between 800-1,200 tonne machines in the larger capacities catering to the heavy blanking and heavy press industry,” he added.

The SEW, which was set up in 1989 in Rajkot, today employs 200 people. With the new unit, the firm will hire 200-300 manpower. The company aims at a turnover of Rs 45 crore for the current financial year, compared with Rs 40 crore in the last financial year. Till date, it has invested over Rs 50 crore.

The automotive sector is the biggest chunk of the customer segment for SEW. The big customers are the suppliers of Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Honda Cars, Ford India, Suzuki Motorcycles, and Havells India, among others.

On exports, Chawla said, “Fortunately, the domestic market keeps us very busy. But with the new plant we will explore export options too.”

Chawla claimed that the order book is quite good, with the company is seeing a growth of about 5-7 per cent year-on-year.

On Challenges, Chawla said, “We use a lot of imported items... the dollar fluctuations affects our business. We are expecting the GST rollout, which will make outsourcing and business transactions a lot easier.”