JCBL Marrel, part of JCBL Group, has its operations based out of Chennai. The division was set up mainly to cater to the requirements of major commercial vehicles OEMs located in and around Tamil Nadu. JCBL Marrel is currently one of the largest tipper manufacturing units in South India and supplies large volumes to OEMs like Ashok Leyland and Daimler. Its product portfolio consists of tippers, various kinds of trailers, dry van containers, etc., with the most recent addition being Petroleum, Oil & Lubricant (POL) tankers.
Talking exclusively to MOTORINDIA, Mr. Sandip Chakroborty, Executive Director, JCBL Marrel Tippers Pvt. Ltd., says: “We were contemplating on adding various new products to our kitty for our horizontal growth. After detailed market research and industry inputs, we zeroed in on POL tankers as our future growth engine. Out of many considerations, two areas which made us decide on POL tankers are its growth potential and the urgent need for quality tankers that conform to global standards.”
Huge market potential
The estimated market size of POL tankers in India is approximately 9,000 units per year and is expected to grow at a rate of 10-12 per cent per annum. The crude oil refinery capacity amounted to approximately 230 million metric tons per annum during both FY18 and FY17, up from about 215 million metric tons in FY16.
Looking at the current market scenario, there are not many quality and organized tanker builders in the country with a majority of the demand being catered to by the unorganized sector who have primitive and crude methods of manufacturing, giving rise to major quality and safety concerns. The tankers are required to carry certain licenses and should be manufactured as per the Petroleum & Explosive Safety Organization (PESO) specifications, but more often than not, the norms are compromised. Another long pending demand of the oil marketing companies (IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, etc.) has been for manufacturers to come up with a robust design that can help minimize pilferage. The unorganized sector has not been able to provide this due to their lack of knowledge and R&D efforts.
Benchmarking design and manufacturing
JCBL Marrel with its deep market understanding and strong know-how is geared up to address the challenges and deliver products that will set new benchmarks in the segment. Mr. Chakroborty explains: “We did a lot of study on how the tankers are made globally and how aspects like stability and safety are brought into the design without compromising on quality and aesthetics. We surveyed Europe and also South-East Asia regarding automated manufacturing of tankers and have procured the most advanced and latest machines to manufacture various parts and the complete tanker. The most critical parts of a tanker are its dish ends because they control its shape and are also important for its volumetric capacity consistency. In India, the dish ends are usually made manually and hence lack consistency and aesthetics. We have imported a latest PLC-controlled hydraulic dish end manufacturing machine to ensure best results.”
Another critical aspect in tanker manufacturing is the welding. Poor welding in a POL tanker can generate leakages and lead to fatal accidents. JCBL has this aspect too well covered: “We have state-of-the-art automatic butt-welding machines which are used for joining steel plates an; these machines deliver the most accurate and desirable weld beads with quality and are extremely good aesthetically as well”, the ED shares.
JCBL Marrel tankers are rolled with a PLC-controlled rolling machine which gives a precise shape and is also very effective in terms of productivity. The company claims to be the only manufacturer in the country to currently use such machines. For full welding of its tankers too, it employs automated machines to ensure the required level of quality and durability are achieved.
Sharing insights on the design side, he says: “We are very focused on strengthening our R&D and are consistently working on bringing various design improvements to our tankers. The recent changes in the axle load capacity of trucks made us work very hard to derive the increased and optimal load-carrying capacity and within a very short span of time we have got our designs approved by PESO for most chassis variants of the major CV manufacturers. Our efforts in this regard were appreciated by our customers, OEMs and oil marketing companies.”
Though JCBL Marrel is a relatively new player in the POL tanker space, it has been able to make a huge impact in quick time, having already supplied large numbers to IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, and Essar Oil, all as per their stringent norms. The company has recently supplied to one of Shell’s largest fleet transporters which is testimony to the growing acceptance of its products. Furthermore, JCBL Marrel hopes to be selected as a preferred and authorized tank manufacturer for Shell in India, a move that it considers would be a huge honor for the company and its team.
Shift to bottom-loading tankers
Slowly all the oil terminals will be switching towards the bottom-loading tankers with quite a few in South India having already made the switch. Bottom-loading tanker trucks are a standard phenomenon globally and India is expected to adopt the same once the necessary infrastructure is available at the terminals. Bottom-loading trucks are almost fool-proof as far as pilferage and adulteration are concerned and also help save huge quantity of oil lost due to vaporization while filling.
On JCBL Marrel’s readiness on this front, Mr. Chakroborty states: “We are ready with our designs and already quite a few variants have been approved by PESO; we are currently working with one of the best-known bottom-loading safety equipment manufacturers globally. We have started supplying these tankers to various oil companies and the results have been widely appreciated. We see great potential for JCBL Marrel in manufacturing these tankers as it requires infrastructure, R&D and production methods that comply to global standards and we are one of the few who are ready with the same.”
The POL tankers are largely sold directly to the end-customers and not as a fully-built version through the OEMs. JCBL Marrel, with its quality and production methods, is on the verge of reversing the trend as reflected in many OEMs’ interest in offering the tankers as a fully-built option to customers. The company is in active talks with the OEMs to work out the modalities as the tankers require some licenses and approvals before they can be sold to the end-user