Globally-acclaimed engine range well accepted by customers
Shandong Heavy Industry India Pvt. Ltd. (SHIG India), a subsidiary of the Weichai Group of China, is going all guns blazing to expand its presence and customer base in the Indian market. The company has been delivering diesel engines to customers since the last 13 years and caters to a wide range of applications including marine, gen-sets, construction & earthmoving and commercial vehicles.
We spoke to Mr. Li Jian, Managing Director, SHIG India, to know more about the strong base the company has established in the country and how it plans to take things to the next level in future.
Excerpts:
Please give us a brief background about the Weichai Group’s and SHIG’s presence in India. Since when have you been selling products for the on-road & off-road segments and since when have you been manufacturing products locally?
Weichai, part of the SHIG Group, made a foray into the Indian market in 2006 by trading and offering long block diesel & gas engines to our channel partners for power generation and marine applications.
SHIG India is a subsidiary of the $36 billion SHIG Group with an array of world-renowned engineering products and services. The SHIG Group focusses on five major verticals, namely, automotive, construction machinery, powertrain, luxury yachts as well as parts and services. The group’s products include trucks & buses to complete vehicle aggregates covering diesel & gas engines, complete drivetrain systems such as axles, gearboxes, as well as heavy-duty mining trucks, earthmoving & construction equipment, hydraulics, yachts and logistics.
SHIG India was registered in 2011 and the first diesel engine rolled-out from our state-of-the-art plant in Pune in 2014. In 2018, we expanded our operations to include the Baudouin brand of diesel engines for power generation from 18 kW to 2000 kW with the plant being upgraded with a hydraulic dynamometer to test diesel engines up to 2000 kW rating. Baudouin, also part of the SHIG Group, has its mother plant in France with subsidiary units in China.
What is the production capacity of your Pune facility? How many engine units have you sold in India until now?
Our present capacity is 10,000 engines per annum in phase I. We are concentrating on power nodes from 180 kW to 500 kW and will extend the range below 180 kW and above 500 kW in the near future.
We have supplied over 80,000 diesel and gas engines to highly satisfied customers and they are operating successfully in power generation and marine applications since 2006.
Who are your major OEM customers across the different application segments you cater to?
In the marine segment, Weichai has a strong presence and is No. 1 in the Indian market with over 55% market share. We have a strong sales and service network across the coastline to provide effective aftermarket support.
In the power generation segment, we have corporate alliances including Ashok Leyland with whom we have aligned to promote the Baudouin range of power generation engines up to 2,500 kVA in addition to other Original Equipment Assemblers (OEAs). The G Drive engines are assembled into complete diesel generating sets, sold and serviced by our channel partners. Our range of engines are also fitted in special equipment such as cranes, wheel loaders, dozers, etc., through many of our OEAs including Sany, XCMG, LiuGong and L&T, among others.
Some of our other group products include HANDE axles and FAST gearboxes which are being procured by some of the major players including Volvo-Eicher and Ashok Leyland for specific vehicle models.
What advantages do your products deliver to customers, especially considering your competitors include globally established players and also strong home-grown brands?
We produce diesel & gas engines under the brand of Weichai, Baudouin and PSI (USA) and are the world’s largest manufacturer of diesel engines with a capacity of over 1 million engines per annum. Weichai has been rolling out over 600,000 to 800,000 engines year-on-year, having established performance and durability of the product over the years. Our products are sold at a premium in China and many of the international markets vis-à-vis some of the major players and we are a preferred brand because of our technological superiority. One cannot maintain the No. 1 status year on year if you are not in a position to offer the best value for money and maximum customer satisfaction.
How ready are you for BS-VI and what is the current status of your BS-VI engine? What opportunities do you see from the market’s transition to BS-VI in April next year?
Through technical collaboration Weichai has upgraded its engine portfolio to the electronic HPCR platform in 2009 and has a large volume of engines operating in the field. The SHIG Group has five R&D centres globally with over 4,000 R&D engineers on board.
Currently, the range of diesel and gas engines from the Weichai and PSI portfolio of 2.3L to 17L meets the latest Euro-VI / BS-VI emission norms and is currently being offered to our customer base in Europe and USA.
We may be in a position to offer our engines for specific nodes required by Indian players and are open to entering into a tie-up or JV to manufacture the engines in India.
Which are the major export markets you cater to from your Pune facility?
Presently, we cater to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives from our Pune plant. However, we intend to use our Indian base to offer many of our platform products to the Middle East, Africa and South-East Asian countries.
In the medium- to long-term, what kind of growth potential do you foresee for SHIG Group in India and what are your major targets?
We are quite bullish of the India growth story and expect huge growth in the CV and other segments. While we have established our presence in the marine segment which contributes largely to our business in India at present, we are aggressively expanding our reach in other potential segments including power generation, construction machinery and commercial vehicle, as well as new energy business covering EV aggregates, including batteries. We are also in a nascent stage of entering into the hydrogen fuel cell power segment.
SHIG India, representing the group brands, is currently focusing on introducing proven products for commercial vehicles, mining trucks and other businesses; we are in talks for suitable tie-ups or JV’s with leading players in the industry. I am quite confident that the introduction of some of our leading products will catapult us into a fairly large player to reckon with over the next decade.