"In plastics machinery, India is a much developed market than the rest of South Asia"

'Entrepreneurs have always analysed the world through a different looking glass' goes an old adage. Starting up a business from ground zero is not an easy task, especially not in the cutthroat world of the plastics machinery industry. However, as a first generation entrepreneur, S V Kabra, chairman and managing director, Kabra Extrusiontechnik Ltd (KET) had a clear vision of how he would pave his way towards becoming the largest manufacturer of plastics extrusion machinery in India with the establishment of Kolsite in 1963, when plastics industry itself was at a nascent stage. An economics graduate from Mumbai University, Kabra believed in not only doing different things, but in doing things differently. Today, with more than four decades of expertise, Kabra is revered by the industry as one of the stalwarts in plastics extrusion. In an exclusive conversation with Sundeep Nadkarni, Kabra speaks at length about the various facets of the plastics extrusion industry in India and abroad, while highlighting KET's plans for the near future (especially Plastindia). Excerpts…

Current scenario of plastics machinery industry…

The market for the plastics machinery worldwide is about $ 1.5 billion, of which injection moulding constitutes a major chunk in terms of number and value. This is followed by extrusion, blow moulding, rotational moulding and other processes, in that particular order. But in terms of processing raw materials (in terms of tonnage), extrusion comprises about 60 per cent of plastics processing, with its main usage being films that are used in packaging, pipes, profiles, raffia, etc.  The tonnage used in these application areas is very high. For example, pipes are not only used in agriculture but also in construction, infrastructure and telecommunications, among others. This implies that there is a huge market for the extrusion industry, be it for PVC, HDPE, LLDPE, or even PP. The total consumption of plastics in packaging (films) is around 28-30 per cent of the total plastics consumption.

Indian extrusion industry and Kabra Extrusiontechnik (KET)…

In India, the market for extrusion in the organised sector is about Rs 500 crore, and another Rs 1,000 crore if the unorganised sector is taken into consideration. KET has been leading the market with a total share of about 31 per cent, and a share of 65 per cent in the pipes & profiles market.
We specialise in extrusion machinery and today, our focus is mainly on two sectors in this regard - all kinds of blown films (mono-layer & multilayer – up to five layers) and all kinds of pipes. Profiles is another segment that we are focussing on right now, as it is a relatively untapped segment in India and has a huge growth potential. The main factor is that profiles help in energy conservation.

Joint ventures with world leaders…

In the field of pipes and profiles, we have joint ventures (JVs) with Battenfeld and American Maplan Corporation, both of whom are global leaders in terms of market size. In extrusion, they have almost a 35 per cent share in the global market for pipes and profiles.

Unlike most companies, our JVs are not just limited to technology transfer, rather these are our JV partners. Though they are open in terms of providing technologies it is for us to determine whether it is feasible enough for the Indian market or not. Global companies might come out with plants that have outputs of about 2 tonne/hr, but it is for us to realise if it is relevant to the Indian market today. If the technology does not suit the Indian market, we would not try to develop it in India. We adapt foreign technologies to the Indian market. The basic designs including parameters like screw designs, horsepower, barrel, heating capacity, etc, need not be adapted. But, on some occasions, the entire machine is computerised and this might not be required for the Indian market.  For a computerised line, the increase in price would be more than 50 per cent and this would not be suitable for the Indian market. However, this has nothing to do with compromising on the quality of the core machine.

In simple words, one can say that we customise machines to our market, while the core machine remains the same. These are always going to be customer-centric machines and not core technology-centric machines, along with customisation of our market requirements.