Buoyed by the growth of the commercial vehicle industry India, JCBL, a leading Chandigarh-based automobile group, has established a joint venture with the French tipper major Marrel at Oragadam, the emerging automotive hub on the outskirts of Chennai.
Named JCBL Marrel Tippers Private Ltd., this 50:50 joint venture unit, spread over an area of six acres (24,000 sq. mtrs), is located next to NATRIP’s global automobile testing centre. The plant is all set to roll out a broad range of high performance tippers, skip loaders, Ampliroll hooklifts, etc.
Buoyed by the growth of the commercial vehicle industry in India, JCBL, a leading Chandigarh-based automobile group, has established a joint venture with the French tipper major Marrel at Oragadam, the emerging automotive hub on the outskirts of Chennai.
Named JCBL Marrel Tippers Private Ltd., this 50:50 joint venture unit, spread over an area of six acres (24,000 sq. mtrs), is located next to NATRIP’s global automobile testing centre. The plant is all set to roll out a broad range of high performance tippers, skip loaders, Ampliroll hooklifts, etc.
JCBL Marrel has invested Rs. 25 crores in the first phase of the facility and plans to invest an additional Rs. 15 crores in the second phase next year. "We have established a fully integrated manufacturing facility right from designing to manufacturing tippers. This fully integrated plant would roll out 2,000 tippers annually in the first phase and 4,000 tippers in phase two", says Mr. Renaud Martel, Deputy General Manager, JCBL Marrel.
Founded in 1919, Marrel initially established its reputation by introducing the market's first tipper body with jib and cable. Its ability to innovate enabled the company to develop rapidly over the following decades.
The name Marrel is strongly associated with major technological advances in the industry. The company’s inventions include the Ampliroll hoist, the skip loader and the tipper scissor. Today, it is one of the European leaders in industrial vehicle mounted equipment.
“JCBL Marrel will help us explore opportunities in a fast-growing tipper market segment. Marrel is a global leader in manufacturing tippers. Their knowledge about tipper and our knowledge about the Indian market will complement each other’s efforts”, says Mr. Rishi Aggarwal, Director, JCBL Marrel.
Globally Marrel is a major supplier of tippers and other transportation solutions to companies like Mercedes, Volvo, MAN, Renault and Scania. The presence of all these global manufacturers in India, particularly in the high end tipper segment, provides a great opportunity for JCBL Marrel. In fact, Volvo is the first major customer for the new joint venture in India.
Marrel has been exploring the Indian tipper market for quite some time. JCBL has also been planning to enter the tipper market. It was a year back that both the companies came together, and an agreement was signed in August 2007 for setting up the joint venture for manufacturing tippers. The new facility has been established in an record time, and the first few tippers rolled out of the facility recently.
The tipper market in India is estimated at for 25,000-30,000 units annually and is growing at about 18-20 per cent a year. The market is currently dominated by Hyva, Cebbco and ACCL, but there is huge demand for high quality tippers. "We are committed to deliver superior quality products that fulfill stringent quality control standards and meet the specific requirements of our esteemed customers”, comments Mr. Renaud Martel.
What Marrel offers to the JV is its strong design capabilities in tippers and global affliations with truck manufacturers like Volvo, MAN, Mercedes and Scania. On the other side, JCBL brings to the JV very strong engineering skills, understanding of the domestic market and, most importantly, relationships with Indian truck manufacturers like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors and Swaraj Mazda.
Marrel comes with close to nine decades of experience in tipper design and manufacturing, and its high utilisation of special material for tipper will prove to be a great advantage for the JV. With the existing Indian manufacturers, the tipper designs are usually sent to Europe for approval, but with Marrel, already an approved OEM, the whole process of design and approvals becomes a lot more easier and faster.
JCBL Marrel’s state-of-the-art integrated plant in Chennai boasts of a complete manufacturing and assembly line, ensuring quality at each stage of production. The company has a state-of-the-art in-house press shop (7.1 mtrs, 800 tons) ensuring optimum production performance.
JCBL Marrel's know-how in metal folding is adapted to a wide range of steels to provide optimum weight / strength ratios. Marrel was among the first industrial equipment manufacturers to use very high tensile steels.
Currently the total market size of high end tippers stands at around 1,000 units per annum and is expected to increase to 2,000 units by 2009. The segment comprising this class of multi-axle tipper trucks of Mercedes, Volvo, Scania and AMW is expected to grow at more than 30 per cent in the coming years on the back of heavy mining activities in India. With the Indian Government deciding to add 78,000 mw power in the Eleventh Plan and another 82,000 mw in the Twelfth Plan, the requirement for coal as fuel for mega power plants would increase, expanding the size of the tipper truck market for the mining industry in India.
JCBL Marrel will offer the complete range of tippers to the Indian market. What differentiates JCBL-Marrel Tippers from those available in the market is, these tipper are manufactured with wear resistance Hardox 400 material. The tipper bodies are lighter so it offers extra pay load for the customer. The rubber damper between floor and sub frame avoids impact load on chassis. Bodies are sand-blasted and oven baked paint is used for a longer life.
JCBL Marrel is equipped with a full range of tools required for achieving best results (Product Instruction Manual, Training, and Standardization of mounting components). The company has also made large investments in painting facilities which include state-of-the-art shot blasting, painting booths and a baking oven.
JCBL Marrel will have the capacity to design and manufacture tippers suitable for mounting on vehicles from 3.5 to 32 MT. The tippers could be two way tippers, three way Tippers, rear Tippers, drop sided Rear Tippers, U-Shaped Rear Tippers and Quarry Tippers. JCBL Marrel has conducted extensive test of its tippers in the Singareni coal Mines and in Kudremukh Ironore Mines.
Marrel currently doesn't have any manufacturing facility in Asia so the Indian facility could well be used for catering to the nearby emerging markets. But the focus currently is on the domestic market, says Rishi, as the Indian market offers enough opportunities for growth.
Service network
The biggest advantage for JCBL Marrel compared to other tipper manufacturers will be its service network. JCBL as a company has an established sales and service network throughout the country and this will come as a major advantage for the JV.
Mr. Rishi Aggarwal says: "We understand the need for a dedicated service network spanning the length and breadth of the nation. Our team of dedicated service engineers and technicians ensure that our customers' machines are up and running at all times. JCBL Marrel Spare Parts Service is designed to provide a fast and effective response to minimize the breakdown time using JCBL's existing Service Network, adequately spread in each state throughout the country".
JCBL Marrel is the coming together of two strong automotive manufacturers with complimenting strengths. Its a perfect combination of global design and engineering skills adapted to Indian requirements. The JCBL Marrel JV is well poised to take advantage of the opportunity available in the fast growing tipper segment.
The other Marrel products include scissors for rear side tippers, two-side tippers and three-side tippers and underframe cylinders suiting customer's needs upto the most rigorous uses. Marrel combines intelligent design with proprietary high pressure hydraulics. The product range, consisting of three lines of Amplirolls, allows containers of various lengths to be loaded from the ground onto a trailer, transported and dumped.
Extremely versatile equipments are used to transport materials in skip loaded condition from the ground or trenches and also by end tipping. Marrel skip loaders can be fitted onto a 4x2 or 6x4 chassis and have a filling capability of 14-18 MT.
Marrel has been the exclusive distributor of HMF cranes in France for more than four decades. HMF is one of the world's top three crane manufacturers with distributors in more than 50 countries. World over HMF is recognized for the high quality and reliability of its products. The entire product range is now available in India.
