At Dormer Pramet, we have a wide program of 40,000 products, with round tools making up the most of our sales and is growing the quickest in the market. Solid carbide tools especially are seeing an increase in recent years, but high-speed steel (HSS) tools continue to show strong growth.
Within our round tools’ assortment, more than 13,000 products support hole-making applications and 5,500 items for threading. As always, we will continue to introduce new tools, to ensure our product offer remains relevant for customers.
Our focus segments continue to be general machining, MRO, die & mold, railway and the application area of heavy machining. Aerospace Frame and Assembly has been added recently to recognise our assortment in this area, particularly following the acquisition of Wetmore Tool and Engineering in January 2019.
We believe the growth in cutting tools will come from the aerospace industry which is in the nascent stage in India and therefore offers significant potential. Other sectors the Indian Government has opened to the private sector are railway and defence, which will also support growth in these areas.
The cutting tool industry is ready for the challenge these sectors bring and creating the products fit for the future. A lot of activities are taking place in R&D, including at Dormer Pramet, with new product development focusing on providing customers with high tool life and productivity.
However, all segments are subject to market conditions. The GDP in India is very low, mainly due to the general elections during April and May, coupled with a global slowdown.
The automotive industry is especially going though a difficult phase due to high interest rates and the new emission norms BS VI, which come into effect in April 2020. Production levels are low, as all automotive companies are in the change-over phase, leading to lower consumption of cutting tools. There is also pressure from the Government on the industry to deliver electric vehicles as soon as possible.
However, with a normal monsoon and festive season setting in, the industry in India is likely to bounce back to its previous volumes, and we should see the country again as one of the fastest growing large economies in the world.
Gautam Ahuja
Managing director
Dormer Pramet India