— Aruna B. Advani, Executive Chairman, Ador Welding LtdAdor Welding Ltd
(formerly Advani Oerlikon
Ltd), a Mumbai-based
pioneer of the welding
industry, offers the finest
range of welding
equipment and
consumables, and
continually invests in new
products and technologies.
Aruna B. Advani takes
Lalitha Rao on a detailed
tour of the Indian
welding industry.
India is discovering welding as
an essential trade in building
economy, though it is largely an
unorganised sector. Do you see a
change in this perception?
We don't see the industry as
being purely unorganised.
There are Indian welding companies
with sizeable turnovers
and MNCs have also developed
strong track records. It is true
that given the historical dominance
of general purpose applications,
which is served by highly
commoditised products, the
industry size has remained
small to mid-size.
Demand for low-end products
has led to the mushrooming of
several small and regional players,
in turn leading to the characterisation
of a fairly unorganised
market. However, with a booming
economy and growing demand
for improved products for critical
applications, we believe the
industry is maturing to clearly
segment the organised from the
unorganised.
Customers today expect solutions,
service, training and partnership
to meet their challenging
requirements. This is where the
segmentation becomes more visible.
So yes, over the next 5-10
years, we will witness a significant
change in the perception of the
welding industry.
What is the market size of the
Indian welding industry?As you know, estimating the size
of an industry with a heavy unorganised
component is always
difficult. However, we believe
the total industry, consumables
and equipment is approximately
3,000 crore. Based on this we
have funneled down to an estimated
400-500 crore market
size for the organised manual
welding equipment.
Which are the major growth
drivers in the welding equipment
and consumables market
in 2010?
For us, the key focus industries
over the next five-seven years are
power, shipbuilding, oil and gas
(upstream and downstream), railways
and general fabrication.
We are witnessing a major
upsurge in the demand for products
to meet the needs of highend
critical applications; for
example, welding for critical
and supercritical boilers in the
power industry etc.
The shift from manual to continuous
welding will also play a key
role in the medium term.
Can you highlight some of the
technological developments in
the welding sector?
Welding equipment has progressed
from manual parameter
setting to digitally programmable
units. Equipment has also
become more compact and
lightweight, thereby reducing
material costs and improving
mobility on the shop-floor. There
is a shift from conventional
transformers and diode/thyristor
type rectifiers to the more energy
efficient inverter and chopper
based power sources.
At the macro level, technology
shifts in the Indian welding market
are focused on improved productivity
through the use of continuous
welding consumables
(wires and fluxes), reduced power
consumption, and the adoption of
automated processes.
We have the leading range of
diesel engine driven welding sets
to specifically meet the needs at
project sites and have introduced
new variants to provide our customers
with the best products in
the market-place.
To what extent are imports a
threat to domestic companies?
With a growing manufacturing
base and access to supplies from
across the globe, imports will
always remain a threat; it is just
something we have to learn to
live with. The key is to providing
additional value-added services
that most importers will not be
able to meet. We are also continually
working towards becoming
the most efficient manufacturer
in the industry.
What are your plans for the Gulf
region?
We set up an office in the Sharjah
free trade zone in 2006 to support
our key distributors in the Middle
East with technical expertise.
While these markets did face a setback
with the financial crisis,
opportunities are growing again
in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar,
Abu Dhabi (UAE) etc. We are continually
looking to strengthen our
role here and are confident we will
soon witness an improvement of
sales in the area.
Can you briefly talk about Ador
Welding?
As pioneers of the welding industry,
Advani Oerlikon, and now
Ador Welding, has continually
invested in new products and
technologies. We have three technology
development centres that
focus on bringing to market, products
that provide an optimal edge
over the competition. Our TDCs
have also undertaken the task to
develop consumables for meeting
the properties required from new
grade welding materials.
We have a rigorous training programme
for our sales engineers so
that they focus on solution selling
rather than pure product selling.
One of our greatest assets is the
Ador Institute for Welding Technology
where we provide training
and support services to clients
from every industry. AIWT is
based in Pune after recently shifting
from Mumbai. In the last 30
years over 60,000 welders, supervisors
and inspectors have been
accredited through our institute