The MAN Group is now having greater focus on India through its recently newly opened MAN House Mumbai. MAN experts representing the entire product portfolio of this renowned commercial vehicle and mechanical engineering group will be at the service of partners and customers. "For over a century MAN has been in India, and with the new MAN House Mumbai we intend to significantly strengthen our presence there. Specialists from diesel engines, commercial vehicles, turbo machinery, and industrial services combine to form a strong team for addressing the customer needs and requirements," commented Dr. Georg Pachta-Reyhofen, Executive Board member at MAN AG, at a press conference in Mumbai.
Last year saw MAN raise its order intake in India by 38 per cent to around 111 million euros.
With a population of over one billion, India ranks among the 10 economically most successful nations. Its growing demand for energy and transport services corresponds to the transport-related engineering solutions provided by the MAN Group. Driven by the mounting demand from Indian associates for custom-tailored solutions in this sector, MAN has since 2006 been operating its own production plants in the country, among them the Pithampur-based MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture for building heavy-duty trucks, and the Aurangabad plant for manufacturing marine and power plant diesel engines meant for the world market.
Further components of the group's physical presence in India are the MAN sales and service branches in Kolkatta, Pune and Delhi.
As one among the fastest growing nations, India enjoys international predominance in a number of sectors. With production of heavy-duty commercial vehicles and big diesels, the supply of turbo machinery and extensive expertise in transport solutions and large-scale plant, MAN contributes much for the growth of the country. Together with its customers and suppliers, the group benefits from an average annual economic growth rate of almost 9 per cent.
The MAN Group employs a workforce of 228 at its Indian locations. Besides apprentice training, skilled workers from India attend initial and advanced courses in Germany. Within India, MAN works together with local training establishments.
Besides the joint venture MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd., MAN Nutzfahrzeuge has also now set up a subsidiary in India. MAN Truck and Bus India, housed in the Mumbai House, will assist the joint venture in technical matters and in the expansion of the sales & distribution network. The company is headquartered in the Mumbai MAN House. MAN is thus underscoring the significance of the future of Indian market. Marketing of its products in India will continue to be the exclusive domain of MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd.
Since 2006, MAN Force Trucks, a joint venture of FORCE Motors with MAN Nutzfahrzeuge in which the latter holds a 30 per cent stake, has been manufacturing at its own plant in Pithampur. Force Motors is one of India's leading producers of three-wheelers and tractors as well as MUVs and LCVs; the company is headed by its Chairman and Managing Director Abhay Firodia.
The Pithampur plant makes heavy trucks of over 16 t capacity, the CLA series, marketed as semitrailer tractors, dumpers and chassis/platform units. About 90 per cent of the parts are sourced from local suppliers. Hence, MAN is the first truck builder to introduce European quality in India. The around 24,000 MAN Force Trucks units planned by 2010 will be marketed in India, besides being exported to other Asian and African countries.
MAN Force Trucks is in sole charge of handling sales of CLA trucks in India. Exports from India are handled through MAN's own distribution structure. MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd. has a nationwide dealer network presently comprising 17 service and sales stations to be expanded to 50 bases in the medium term.
MAN Diesel opened its first sales branch in Delhi in 1950. Today, it has had its presence at several locations of the subcontinent. At Aurangabad since 2007, high-duty 32/40 engines for use in ships and power plants worldwide have been built.
From development to marketing, MAN Diesel relies on skilled Indian labor. Concurrently a local engineering center has been set up with almost 100 CAD-trained Indian engineers who provide intra-group assistance for European employees in the engineering and design departments working on innovative diesel engines.
Business ties with important Indian ship-builders and ship-owners as well as the Indian Navy are being strengthened. In 2007, MAN Diesel booked an order from India's ABG Shipyard Ltd. for the engines to power new anchor handling tug supply (AHTG) tankers with a total rating of almost 12,000 kW.
India is a highly promising market not only for the big marine diesels but also for diesels used in diesel and gas power plants. MAN Diesel's footing in the power plant sector takes the form of a joint venture with a local partner, MAN Diesel Power India Pvt. Ltd., managed by a board headed by Mr. Naresh Oberoi.
This company already has a substantial share of the market for small capacity power plants, and plans are underway to extend this strong market position to larger power plants to be marketed by MAN Diesel in turnkey condition and along with the related operating and maintenance contracts.
MAN Diesel PrimeServ operating from its Aurangabad, Mumbai, Vizag and Colombo locations assures the highest standards of after-sales service. By the end of the year, these will be joined by another two service bases on India's east and west coasts, in Chennai and Gujarat.
The first chapter in MAN Turbo's success story in India was written in the 1930s in the form of participating in the construction of steel mills which it also supplied shortly thereafter with machinery. Presently, some 60 chiefly Indian employees work at the Vadodara plant.
Since 1990, over 500 machines have been installed. MAN Turbo is, among other things, the supplier to the world's biggest refinery of Reliance at Jamnagar, with annually 60 million t of refined products such as diesel and aviation fuels.
Co-operation with the Nagarjuna Group, India's biggest fertilizer producer in Hyderabad, typifies the development and realization of customized industrial projects. Between 1989 and 1995, MAN Turbo supplied this innovation-driven company with altogether 14 high-performance ammonia production machines. Grown from this successful business relationship will in future be co-operation in the energy sector, a new group business unit.
MAN Ferrostaal has a Delhi-based office with a staff of 16. For its Indian customers, MAN Ferrostaal supplies individual turnkey plants – its capabilities ranging from development and financing via project management to commissioning. The upstream work is often sparked by an idea followed by market analyses and feasibility studies.
Together with its customer, British Plaster Board BPB in Mumbai, e.g., production plants are developed for plaster boards intended for interior use in both private and commercial buildings, a booming market in India. Other activities are directed at established industries such as petrochemical and power plant construction as well as, together with partners, the hydro-electric power sector.Decades of experience as a general contractor of international format in the engineering and construction of industrial systems throughout the world – this is characteristic of MAN Ferrostaal also when it comes to biofuel production plants which are one of the most important future markets. Such equipment is tied to complex industrial processes which MAN facilitates for its customers. The necessary raw material resources which can be exploited indigenously thus play a valuable role in the economic development of regions which presently are 60 per cent agriculture dominated.
