Bhajjanka Ispat Maintaining Growth Momentum
How do you see the growth projection, opportunities and demand in the aggregate and mining industry of India, and what are the challenges impacting growth of this sector?
India’s aggregate and mining industry has been growing for the past few years. We particularly see growth in the aggregate industry with all the projects being implemented by the GoI in the road and infrastructure sector. The construction industry, which accounts for about 8% of the country’s GDP, ranks third in terms of direct and indirect employment. The GoI has increased its budget in the infra sector and introduced plans like Housing for All by 2022, metro rail projects, development of highways, and increased road construction.
So, there is optimism in both mining and construction industries this fiscal despite certain challenges such as employee retention, compliances with government policies, growth of individual companies, hiring etc.
I think we need to promote more use of M-sand for the infrastructure industry. Demand and usage has increased over the last few years as customers have understood the underlying benefits of M-sand. Equipment for producing M-sand are being promoted by all the big OEMs in India, which is further helping the cause.
What has marked the growth of Bhajjanka Ispat over the years?
Our managing director, Mr. Shiv Shanker Agarwal has been the driving force behind the company’s success as his undying spirit to move forward and keep supporting our customers who believe in our brand value, has helped us expand our product portfolio with many new products. This has helped our OEMs to grow alongside and leave the management of stock and quality to us. In fact, promoting M-sand has been a passion for our whole team as we think of ways to help preserve our rivers and nature.
What are your manufacturing facilities and capabilities with respect to production, R&D, and conformity to international quality standards?
Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is equipped with automated machines for consistent quality and production. Our raw materials are checked for tensile, elongation, rebound, hardness and undergo other required testing so that we can keep a check on the finished goods. Polyurethane is a very hygroscopic material and it easily reacts to the atmospheric moisture, so we take special measures to protect it.
We are currently managing the country’s biggest range of products for the processing industry. These include Hydrocyclones, Polyurethane Panels, Dewatering Panels, Bucket Panels, Pipes and Pipe Fittings with liners, Rubber Hoses, PU Rollers, Rubber Dampers and many more. We try to keep all the moving items in stock all the time. We have currently started providing support in the form of cyclones with all pipe lines including for a sand washing plant so that we can create an industry standard for them.
How has Bhajjanka oriented its business to meet market requirements? Are you providing customized solutions to customers?
We do provide customized solutions based on customer requirement. We provide customized drawing for our clients dewatering screen panel arrangement along with the cyclone fitting. We have tested our water recycling system that has a flocculant station. We use thickeners for reusing approximately 70% water back into the washing system, which has been running successfully. We have a huge demand for thickeners from our OEMs and we plan to promote them more aggressively in the market as they solve a lot of problems for end-users.
Demand and usage of M-sand has increased over the last few years as customers have understood the underlying benefits of M-sand. Equipment for its manufacture is being promoted by all the big OEMs in India, which is further helping the cause.
We want to be in the front line for providing support and spares for all mineral processing OEMs. Our sales and marketing team keeps in constant touch with our clients and vendors, and our project team stays in the field to gauge the performance of our equipment and assess any problem during production.
How are Bhajjanka products positioned in terms of quality, reliability, productivity, and affordability? What quality control systems are in place?
We are the market leader in selling, commissioning and providing technical support for Hydrocyclones and Polyurethane Panels. We try to position our products as affordable while being reasonably profitable for us. Our liners for cyclones are made from raw materials imported from Japan and USA, and we ensure that they are of international quality standards by running a series of quality check at our in-house testing lab.
What new initiatives has the company taken to increase sales and strengthen product support?
We have set our own standards in the market for all our products. We would like to continue working with and supporting our OEMs. We have dealers and aftersales team across India and in over 20 countries, and we plan to increase their number this year. We also plan to increase our brand’s reach all over the world by partnering with people who can relate to our company’s policies and business strategies. We are training our sales and technical teams to have a more solution-oriented approach, rather than just putting numbers on charts.
What are your plans for expansion and for exports?
We are planning to expand our production units and shift to a bigger production facility by the year end. We are looking forward to adding more dealers across the country and also worldwide so that we can increase our reach. The expansion of our sales network is in line with the expansion in our manufacturing facility, which is already underway.
We have been successfully marketing our products in South Africa, Uzbekistan, Russia, Iran, Egypt and other countries since 2017, and this year, we will extend our marketing to other parts of the world and reach new business heights.
NBM&CW June 2018
