Keestrack, which has recently begun localproduction in India, is looking to align its products and services for theIndian crushing and screening market in a bigger way, writes Swaminathan Dhandapani.
“Machines that come on a mechanical platform butare later modified to become hybrid cannot give as efficient a performance ascompared to the hybrid-designed machines.”
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Mineral processing solutions manufacturer,Keestrack, which has recently begun local production in India, is looking toalign its products and services for the Indian crushing and screening market ina bigger way. The company aims to widen its business footprint in the highlycompetitive Indian market, primarily through its technological prowess and strongcustomer support services.
Our products have been designed to deliver 15per cent more efficiency as compared to our European and Indian competitors inthe crushing and screening field. The higher efficiency relates to productionthroughput, machine performance, and higher uptime due to lesser wear and tearof the machine parts.
All this has been led by adaption of advancedtechnology at par with our global standards in the designing of our machines.So, Indian customers will benefit greatly by reduced cost of operations throughoutthe lifecycle of our products.
Indigenization will be our major focus area tolower product cost. Etrack has sourced local vendors for fabrication as it aimsfor at least 70 per cent localization of its products but will continue toimport 30 per cent of the components, such as engines and hydraulic components,etc., along with cone crushers – despite the presence of local componentmanufacturers in India.
We do incur a high custom duty by importing somecritical components, but by importing, we offset the risk of any possible disruptionin Quality and Productivity of the machines. This gains more importance in viewof the exports from our Indian manufacturing facility.
Hybriddesign for lower operating cost
Our machines are engineered to deliver higherefficiency. Moreover, our machines have high availability as they are designedto be hybrid, which means that they can run on both electricity and Diesel.
Some manufacturers make machines that basically comeon a mechanical platform, but are later modified to become hybrid. In myopinion, such machines cannot give as efficient a performance as compared to thehybrid-designed machines.
Our machines also deliver lower cost ofoperations due to several innovative features – the power unit (generator) usedto power the crushing and screening unit can be dropped off, in case primepower is available. Secondly, the power off-take from the machine can easily beused for powering the site tower lights or other utilities at site. (This is whenthe crushing plant is in operation).
Through such flexible usage, commercial quarryowners and road contractors (especially those working in the North-Eastern region)will be able to curtail their expenses by not having to buy an extra generatorset at the job site.
Another aspect that lowers the owning andoperating cost of our machines is the use of innovative hybrid technology that substantiallyreduces the number of parts and is designed for ease of operation. The overall compactnessand light weight has been achieved by way of using special grade steel formaking the structure strong and robust. All this also makes them easy and costeffective to transport.
Marketingof Etrack brand
In India, the company plans to tap segments likeprocessing of iron ore, demolition waste recycling, and processing of municipalsolid waste, and has appointed a dealer – CSB – for marketing its products inthe mining mineral processing industry. We have also developed a strong partnernetwork across India to serve the road construction industry.
Our focus will be on primary and secondarysolutions. Once we have positioned our tried and tested machines strongly inthe Indian market, we will consider introducing the full range of Keestrackportfolio.
Export
Keestrack will be manufacturing products to meetdemand in both the Indian and export markets. The company is considering exportof about 40 per cent of its crushing and screening solutions to the Global markets.