Kirloskar Oil Engines recently entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Waukesha Engine, a business of Dresser Inc, US for the manufacture, sales and worldwide service of diesel engines for generating sets in range 2.4 MW to 3.6 MW. The license agreement also includes a future option for the company to build, package and sell and service in India gas-fuelled generating sets in 2.4 to 3.6 MW range.
Kirloskar Oil Engines (KOEL) recently entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Waukesha Engine, a business of Dresser Inc, US for the manufacture, sales and worldwide service of diesel engines for generating sets in range 2.4 MW to 3.6 MW.
The license agreement also includes a future option for the company to build, package and sell and service in India gas-fuelled generating sets in 2.4 to 3.6 MW range.
The company is planning to introduce generating sets from this alliance with Waukesha will be introduced in the market within the next 18 to 24 months. In addition to the above, the alliance will provide the Company the opportunity to manufacture and supply components and assemblies to Waukesha for their manufacture of gas engines in the US, according to a recent presentation made by KOEL to analysts in Pune.
Gas powered engines
The range of the generating sets from the alliance with Waukesha, Kirloskar will offer diesel-generating sets at competitive price point running at 1,500 rpm instead of 1000 rpm sets from the company’s present range. The gas-fuelled generating set in range 2.4 to 3.6 MW is an addition to ‘Kirloskar Green’ range of generating sets. The global market for diesel generating sets in 2.4 to 3.6 MW is estimated by KOEL officials at around 800 units currently while the Indian market for gas-fuelled generating sets in 2.4 to 3.6 MW is about 45 engines. Both the markets are expected to double over the next three to five years.
Waukesha manufactures and sells around 1,200 gas engines per annum and is estimated to have around 28 percent market share in its engine range, according to a KOEL official who refused to be identified. These engines have high power to weight ratio with engine originally designed by Wartsila. The alliance will enable KOEL to offer the engines in the Indian market by 2010. The alliance could also lead to KOEL supplying diesel engine components and assemblies to Waukesha for certain common parts for diesel and gas engines.
KOEL is also in the process of investing around Rs 900 crore for expansion of existing facilities and a greenfield venture over the next couple of year. It is setting up an engine plant at Kagal in Maharashtra with an investment of around Rs 550 crore for manufacturing mid-range engines. Company officials also indicated that manufacturing of small engines may be shifted to Rajkot due to availability of well organised supplier base there from current facility at Phursunghi in Pune. The new greenfield facility is likely to manufacture engine range including compact pumpset ‘Varsha’ and compact high speed engine ‘FA350’.
KOEL currently manufacture engines for various applications including agriculture, construction equipments, diesel generating sets. Its agriculture and construction equipment range include pumps and engines for farm equipment in the range of 3 to 30 kVA, 30 to 600 kVA and 2000 to 6600 kVA under its flagship brand Kirloskar Green. It exports generating sets in the range of 10 to 600 kVA capacity and engines for construction equipments. It also manufactured castings earlier but the division was sold to Kirloskar Ferrous early last year as part of business reorganisation exercise by KOEL.
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