Germany-based harvesting specialist CLAAS is keeping its options open for manufacturing tractors and baler machines (used for compressing crops and binding bales) at its newly set up Morinda plant in Punjab.
Confirming this, Pradeep K Malik, president and MD, CLAAS India told FE, ?We are working on the possibilities of manufacturing tractors or baler machines from this plant once we decide to roll out the second phase of expansion. First, we?ll study the market and if there is any demand, then we can opt for these products also. Work on the second phase will begin when we cross the 900 machine mark from this plant.?
The company, which rolled out its first multi crop machine?Crop Tiger 60 combine harvester from this 25 acres facility today, has already invested close to Rs 90 crore here with the total investment to go up to Rs 100 crore once the facility is fully operational. The assembly line at Morinda has become operational and the complete production facilities are estimated to be completed in the fourth quarter of the current year.
Cathrina Claas, deputy chairperson of the Shareholders Committee, informed, ?About 1,000 combines would be manufactured per year in this new plant which will be positioned in the market at competitive prices. In the first step, about 300 people will be employed here and the number of employees will grow to approximately 500 in the mid-term. With the new combine harvester plant, we are underlining our long-term involvement in India. We have achieved a turnover of 2.5 billion Euros by the end of last fiscal year with about 70% of the sales volume being achieved outside of Germany. The Indian turnover is around Rs 110 crore and we are expecting a growth of 20% this year.?
This plant is expected to put Morinda on the global map as the company is planning to export the machines to neighbouring countries like Srilanka, Nepal and Pakistan besides other markets like South Korea, Taiwan, Iran and many other countries in South East Asia. Furthermore, a growing demand from African countries is developing, such as Sudan, Tanzania, Republic South Africa etc.
CLAAS already has one combine manufacturing plant at Faridabad spread over two hectares with a capacity of producing about 700 combines a year. CLAAS is also investing in its smaller harvester series in order to comprehensively supply the important Indian market. Malik further added, ?We are also collaborating with the Punjab Agricultural University to give scholarships and internships to their students and exchange the technical know-how wherever possible.?