Indian market demands global quality machines'

Swapan Das,
Managing Director,
Etrack Crushers Pvt Ltd.

Swapan Das, Managing Director, Etrack Crushers, talks about the aggressive marketing, after-sales service and training that the company plans to introduce while making inroads into the Indian market

What is your present investment your company has received in India?

In the beginning, we invested 5 million Euros in the first stage and then increased the investment in a phased manner.  This will see us through too something like 85 to 100 machines depending on what size and what configuration that is manufactured This is the first stage of our manufacturing and then we will see how the market grows and how we progress. ETrack Crushers Pvt Ltd, which is part of Keestrack Group, primarily caters to the Indian market. This unit will also cater to the markets in Africa, the Middle East and the SAARC countries from India. The equipment or manufacturing mix everything will be made accordingly and designed.

Are you going to re-design the machines considering the Indian market?

Yes, this is the strategy that we are going ahead with. This is how, as I said, we have developed our whole business plan. We are planning to manufacture about 100 machines in the next three years. During this last one year, we have created this team; we have done re-engineering of the initial models that we are going to manufacture in India. We are not doing the same thing or bringing it from our other factories in Czechoslovakia or China. We are creating complete new products for the Indian market. We know exactly what the customer wants in the mining and construction sectors. From both the point of views: one is application side and second, is the manufacturer side. In manufacturing you have to use Indian compatible suppliers and the steel grade.

How does the machine support multi-tasking?

Along with the zero-emission machine, stockpilers and compatibility, we also give you the telematics GPS compatibility, screen. Wherever in the world, one would know how one's machine is performing for  a particular length of time and how many hours it has run. Such information is made available to the user. We have technical systems to read out from his computer in his office. I can sit in my office and read the control panel of the machine working at some site and I know exactly what is going on. If there is some problem, my service engineer and we can sit down together, discuss with them on the phone and address and set it through this. It is helping a customer as much as possible so they have complete information.

What is your plan for after-sales and service? How are you going to address the issue of lack of skilled operators when you are selling these machines to Indian customers?

Firstly, all our team members have 15-plus years experience and then we impart training to our end customers as well. We conduct training programs with operators at the site for our customers. At the same time, we are now in the process of developing applications.

For instance, digital application where I have access to his spare parts requirements and his service requirement, everything he can call and address, just contact and he will get information on distributor, the closest distributor the stock of parts availability.

For the machine which you plan to launch in India, has the R&D been conducted in India or in Czechoslovakia?

The R&D remains a joint effort between the teams. We have a team of engineers here who are doing the re-engineering of the whole design and if any particular needs to be changed to meet Indian specifications for the type of ore, the type of granite that we have, so all those things are done here and then at the same time they are directly in touch with the global design team based in Czechoslovakia and Austria. Nowadays, it is so easy through the Internet so you create your own channel, through the servers and through vault.

What is the capacity of the machine to run continuously? Does it run on diesel as well as electricitry?

Indeed, it runs on both. It can run for 24 hours for 25-26 days in  a  month, When it is working on electricity you can remove the diesel engine, work on it on the side. The machine can in this way work without the engine. It is modular. Remove the whole thing, take it out, repair it and put it back. If the electricity stops, connect it back to the diesel engine.

All our drive units are electric motors. Hydraulic drive system function smoothly in high ambient temperature in summer when  temperature goes up to 40 degrees Celsius, the power drops because the hydraulic element becomes less viscous and is not able to push that hard so you need to have extensive cooling systems so you cool the oil so it can pour all that.

The government has introduced BS4 norms for October 2020. Is it going to affect your buying market and buying capacity of the buyer?

I think it is a positive change as all players are displaying greater committment to the environment. We hope that along with quality standards, the raw materials like dieself are also upgraded. If the standards are very high and the quality of diesel is not good, it is not going to work. This compatibility needs to be there.

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