-By K. Gopalakrishnan
Tratec Engineers Pvt. Ltd. of Gurgaon, Haryana, founded in 1995, is the leading and foremost “Special Trailer” manufacturer in India. Tratec makes gigantic trailers that are used by capital goods manufacturers / infrastructure projects to move their products. The company specialises in offering total solutions, including design, development, manufacture and maintenance of technologically advanced transportation systems. It is the first and only company indigenously manufacturing ‘hydraulic modular trailers’, and is perhaps one of very few manufacturers of such trailers in the world.
These trailers offer the latest in technology at an affordable price to the customer and are considered a dependable and safe solution for carrying extremely heavy or oversize consignments, within the established safety norms.
The company was started by three first generation entrepreneurs – Mr. Kamal Khosla, Mr. Raman Anand and Mr. K. Rangaswamy. Each of them had years of experience in the trailer industry. Mr. Raman Anand, a Director and founding member of the company, spoke about the growth of the company in the last decade.
He started by saying that, “In 1995, most of the trailers used for super heavy applications (read ODC transportation-Over Dimensional Cargo) were being imported by a select band of strong transport corporations mainly from 2-4 manufacturers in Europe at exorbitant cost who maintained a stranglehold over this market. We identified an opportunity in this business and developed a fully indigenous solution which was functionally comparable to European products at a substantially lower cost.”
Referring to the sustained growth of the company, he said: “For the first few years the going was slow but steady as we kept expanding the market size by introducing this alternative to more and more transporters and gaining their confidence by providing products, support as well as site supervision and technical expertise. In fact, over the last few years imports of these products have virtually stopped as we have achieved about 80-85 per cent market share in India. In recognition of this phenomenal in-house R&D; effort without any outside support or technical collaboration leading to import substitution, the Government of India presented us with the National award in 2001 for Outstanding R&D; in Mechanical Engineering Industry”.
Even today the company is best known as a one-stop solution in the heavy transport industry offering total and indigenous solutions alone, without any technical tie-up or collaboration, Mr. Anand added.
The company is today providing special application solutions to most leading organisations such as L&T;, Tatas, ISRO, BHEL, Ministry of Defence, DRDO, BEML , BEL, etc., as well as all leading transporters and infrastructure projects both in the public and private sectors.
Tratec’s product range includes all types of trailers with mechanical / air as well as hydraulic suspensions to suit load / customer’s requirement. With core strengths in technology, innovative design, infrastructure, as well as expertise in structural engineering, mechanics hydraulics, service back-up, the company is today considered to be the leading solution provider to the heavy transport sector in India and is now the only exporter of such special trailers from India.
“The company also offers products in the mechanical trailer segment, provided we have identified a specific application for which we can develop a model with a USP and supply it to a bulk user group or OEM. Going forward we will get into mass market products like standard trailers as the ultimate customer is now becoming more quality conscious and now realizes the advantage of using our products as compared to those manufactured in the unorganised sector”, said Mr. Anand.
In the first year (1996-1997) Tratec had a registered turnover of Rs. 45 lakhs. Thereafter the company achieved an average growth rate of about 50 per cent. In 2007-08 it expects to achieve a turnover in excess of Rs. 50 crores and aims at a turnover target of Rs. 200 crores by 2011.
Asked about the manufacturing capacity, Mr. Anand indicated that in the case of modular trailers the capacity is measured in terms of the number of axle lines, starting with a capacity of about 24 axle lines a year in standard configurations of 2, 4 and 6 line modules, Tratec manufactured and sold close to 400 axle lines last year.
Talking about the growth in this product segment, he said: “The market for these products is growing rapidly in India, thanks to the infrastructure boom On the other hand, for many years ,grossly overloaded, ordinary, mechanical trailers manufactured in the unorganised sector were used to transport such ODCs, which led to accidents, damage of consignments, etc., resulting in project delays and huge losses.
Now with Government acknowledging this situation and disallowing overloading on standard Trailers, the only accepted indigenous solution to transport large / heavy payloads safely is the Tratec Hydraulic Modular Trailer.
Mr. Anand further said: “The company has been barely meeting the demand from the Indian market and has not done any marketing overseas as yet, even though there is a huge opportunity there for the company products. “We have started export of these trailers in a small way to customers in the Middle East. We will aggressively promote our products as soon as we have created additional manufacturing and service capacity”.
With the phenomenal growth in road net work and infrastructure projects all over the country, there is a huge requirement for transportation of over dimensional cargo and tractor trailers. In fact, even commercial vehicle manufacturers have identified an opportunity in this segment and are rushing in to launch heavy duty tractor trailer models from 300 hp onwards.
In fact, they are also reworking their projected product mix by increasing capacity for prime movers. Tratec with all its experience in design and engineering capabilities is poised to take advantage of the boom in the segment.
