Excerpts from the interview:
Question: How long has Carrier Transicold been serving the transport air-conditioning business in India?
Answer: Carrier Transicold is a business unit of Carrier Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation. Carrier Corp., headquartered in Farmington, Conn., is the world’s largest provider of heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration solutions. With 2007 revenues of $14.6 billion, Carrier has approximately 43,000 employees worldwide and operations in more than 170 countries. With 2007 revenues of $55 billion, United Technologies Corp., is a Hartford, Connecticut-based provider of products and services to the aerospace and building systems industries worldwide.
In fact, Willis Carrier invented modern air conditioning 106 years ago, and founded the company that bears his name.
Carrier Transicold has been serving the transport air-conditioning and refrigeration business in India since 1993 and we enjoy a leadership position in the industry today.
Q: Currently what is the product range you offer in the Indian market, buses and trucks?
A: Carrier Transicold offers a full range of products specially designed for high ambient temperatures in India.
For buses, we have a range of split and roof top systems with cooling capacities ranging from 5 kW to 44 kW, for installation on buses carrying 10 to 100 passengers. Carrier Transicold has recently introduced the parallel rooftop concept to India in its AC 136 range, which has powerful cooling and air flow capacity, ideal for high density passenger buses.
For trucks and trailers, we offer a comprehensive line up of reefer equipment for volumes ranging from 5 CuM up to 70 CuM. The Viento and Xarios truck range are commonly used for chilled transportation and are fitted to run from the truck engine. The Oasis range for large trucks comes with its own engine and can run independent of the truck engine. The Oasis range is specially designed for hot desert and tropical conditions and can run in temperatures as high as 55 C. We also provide state of the art refrigeration equipment for trailers up to 40 ft long. Both single temperature and multi-temperature options are available for trucks and trailers. All these products are designed to provide strong, reliable performance in hot, dusty ambient conditions and offer unmatched pull down and cooling efficiency.
Q: Can you give a glimpse of the current scenario in transport air-conditioning industry – trucks and buses? What is the growth rate in the last few years and future potential it holds? What is the level of penetration in India for truck and bus air-conditioning systems?
A: The bus air-conditioning business in India is witnessing an exponential growth. The Golden Quadrilateral highway network and the introduction of fully built luxury buses by large OEMs, as well as the entry of foreign bus manufacturers, has led to a quantum jump in the quality of buses. More and more passengers are discovering the comforts of air conditioned bus travel in city transport and in intercity travel, and passenger expectations are rising. This is also directly related to our overall expectation of air conditioning in homes, offices, cars and shopping centers.
The penetration level of bus air-conditioning is approximately 4-6 per cent, which is low by international standards, but has increased from less than 2 per cent in a period of the last 5 years and is likely to reach double digits soon.
The penetration of refrigeration in trucks is very small. Industry estimates that annually approximately 104 million tonnes of perishable produce/product are moved in the country. Out of that around 100 million metric tonnes goes through the non-reefer mode and the remaining four million metric tonnes goes through the reefer transport.
As is well known, India is the second largest producer of fruit and vegetables in the world. However, approximately 35 per cent of this produce is wasted due to inefficient methods of storage, handling and transportation. There is a growing awareness in industry and government of the need to develop the cold chain for food across the country and several initiatives are in the process of being firmed up.
Both bus air-conditioning and truck refrigeration are poised to grow 20-25 per cent over the next few years.
Q: Currently the major growth is coming from Bus air-conditioning business. What is Carrier’s presence in the bus air-conditioning segment and how do you see future growth potential for your products in this segment?
A: The last five years has seen the air-conditioned bus market grow more than 20 per cent. Carrier enjoys a leadership position with a significant market share. We are confident that this growth will be sustained and will continue with our investment plans. We are setting up a state of the art engineering/R&D; center at Gurgaon to be ready in a year’s time. We are committed to offering new products to our customers and are working on the localisation of a new range which will be introduced mid-2009.
Q: How is Carrier’s presence in the truck air-conditioning segment? What is driving demand in India for truck refrigeration market? Do you have offer solutions for the complete range of products – refer boxes mounted on rigid trucks, refrigerated containers mounted on semi trailer?
A: Carrier is the Global leader in truck and trailer reefer business and our products have been proven in extreme hot countries like the Middle East. We constantly invest in R&D; to offer the latest technology to our customers. In India, we hold a strong leadership position and a significant market share. We support this fleet with our large network of service dealers and parts distribution. Our products cover the complete range of customer requirement from the smallest distribution van to large 40ft trailers for temperatures from -30 to +30 C in both single temperature and multi temperature versions. Carrier offers products tested for operating at +55DegC.
Q: Who are the major OEMs you are currently working wi
th? Have you been chosen for any of the major projects that are coming up – like the DTC tender?
A: Till recently bus air-conditioning in India was a retrofitted piece of equipment, however now most OEMs have introduced fully built AC buses and are also entering the fully built refrigerated truck business. We are working with almost all major OEMs in India both for Bus and Truck projects. Our Application engineering team works on all technical and design aspects of interfacing the air-conditioning system with the vehicle engine and body.
Our bus air conditioning equipment is used by almost all State Transport Corporations and our truck refrigeration equipment is also used by virtually all major logistics and food companies. We are working on several specific customization projects with large commercial vehicle manufacturers; these projects are at an advanced stage and we will comment on them at the appropriate time.
Q: How do you see competition from cheaper solutions being offered by Chinese and Korean brands? What advantage does Carrier bring to customers in India compared to other brands?
A: Like any other fast growing industry the mobile AC and refrigeration industry is also witnessing entry of several low price competitors, which are imported by trading dealers and these offer entry level attractive pricing. However, Carrier has a versatile and talented application engineering team and we offer customized solutions, specially adapted to Indian road and ambient conditions. We also provide strong parts and service support through a countrywide network of service dealers. We believe after sales support is most important in the commercial vehicle industry, particularly where passenger comfort and perishable cargo protection is critical, and this underlines our market approach and helps us to sustain our leadership position.
Carrier has been one of the pioneers in the fields of transport air-conditioning and in cold chain development. We are proud to manufacture this equipment locally in India, and our strength lies in adapting products to suit Indian conditions, engineer them on the vehicles and support them with our after-sales team. We will also continue to bring the latest global models into India. No matter how demanding the application, Carrier will specify, design, install and service the right customized equipment.
Q: How about the sales and service network of Carrier Transicold in India?
A: Our manufacturing facility is located in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi and the India sales and distribution Head office is in Bangalore. The Regional Offices are in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata. We also have sales offices at Chandigarh, Pune, and Chennai.
Our Service Dealer network includes more than 20 company technicians and 60 Service Dealers spread in all major cities in India, primarily along the main highway routes.
Q: What is the level of manufacturing you do for the transport air-conditioning products in India. Is it completely manufactured in India? What is the level of indigenisation in these products?
A: All models for bus air-conditioning for domestic application are manufactured out of our Gurgaon factory. The units’ designs are standard across the world and sourcing of components is done based on quality and volume availability from across the globe. The components selected have to pass stringent quality and life cycle tests, etc. Presently, critical components and performance parts such as compressors, blowers, refrigerant hoses and control systems are imported from Carrier Transicold suppliers and factories abroad. We are committed to sourcing components and parts from the most economical sources anywhere in the world.
Q: What is the total investment made so far in the existing manufacturing facility and what is the current manufacturing capacity (in units)? I do understand that you are planning to set up another facility for Carrier Transicold. What is the additional investment and capacity planned?
A: The existing manufacturing facility in Gurgaon caters to the complete basket of Carrier products in India which gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of production capacity. Since all Carrier business units are growing there are plans to setup an additional facility and Carrier is actively exploring the various options.
Q: Is Carrier planning to use India as a base for manufacturing and exporting products to nearby markets?
A: Yes, several India manufactured products would be available to other Carrier markets in Asia and, eventually, all over the world.
Q: Can you give a brief on the engineering centre in India of Carrier Transicold and the kind of work they do in India?
A: The engineering center will be focused on latest developments in air-conditioning, heat exchangers, energy efficient systems and alternate concepts such as electrically operated units and environmentally favourable refrigerants to name a few. The engineering centers are in Gurgaon and an application engineering group also operates out of Bangalore. Our engineers have diverse disciplines, backed by state-of-the-art drawing and design facilities. This center ensures seamless transfer of technology from other Carrier sites around the world. As I mentioned, a new building is coming up to meet the expanding needs of our industry.
Q: Apart from transport air-conditioning systems, which are the other segments you are looking? Also for the transport air conditioning business, apart from India, which are the other markets you are responsible for?
A: The focus of Carrier Transicold India is bus air-conditioning and truck refrigeration for India and neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. The air-conditioned bus business is still at an early stage of growth. The refrigerated transport business is part of a larger Cold Chain, which is still weak and fragmented and Carrier is part of several initiatives to increase the penetration of these business in the Indian sub-continent.
