Pumps market is witnessing various changes driven by the customer needs and government policies. In this interview with Rakesh Rao, Akash Patel, Executive Director, Waterman Industries Pvt Ltd, analyses pumps industry which is gearing up to adopt new technologies.

 

How has been the journey of Waterman Industries?

Waterman has more than four decades of expertise and experience in manufacturing pumps. The company, which shifted it production plan from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in 2004, is mainly into manufacturing borewell pumps and open-well submersible pumps and caters to agriculture and domestic sectors. In terms of value, agriculture accounts for about 70 per cent of total pumps sold and domestic accounts for the rest 30 per cent. We are also into exports, though currently is it accounts for only 4-5 per cent of our turnover.

 

What is the present status of the pumps market?

As unorganised players still have a large presence in this sector, it is difficult to exactly measure the size of the industry. Pumps industry is estimated to be Rs 18,000-20,000 crore with organised sector accounting for about 65-70 per cent (ie Rs 12,000 to 15,000 crores). Dominance of unorgaised sector (which accounts for roughly 30-35 per cent) varies from region to region. In South India, share of unorganised players is less compared to other regions (North, West, East and Central).

 

Overall the pumps industry has grown at an average 10 per cent annually. Demand for pumps from agriculture sector is a cyclical. In financial year, typically first quarter (Q1) and fourth quarter (Q4) are peak seasons, while Q2 is slack and Q3 is normal. On year on year (YoY) basis, this segment witnesses a mild de-growth every 3 to 4 years. Agricultural pumps segment is growing at 8 per cent.On the other hand, due to water shortage across the country, demand for domestic pumps has been increasing consistently at 12-15 percent in the last few years. 

 

Agricultural pumps market is largely driven by the government policies and schemes. As part of the government’s energy conservation initiative, Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) has been spearheading the project of replacing old pumps with new energy efficient pumps. In addition, EESL is also planning to procure solar pumps for distribution among farmers. These government initiatives are driving up the demand for pumps.

 

What are emerging trends in pumps industry?

Solar pumps could be the next big thing for the industry. In order to bring down power consumption (to reduce carbon emission), the government, through EESL, is aiming to reduce the number of old inefficient pumps by replacing them with solar pumps.Some companies are also now offering stainless steel pumps instead of conventional cast iron pumps. Stainless steel pumps are claimed to be more energy efficient, but are costlier (2.5 to 3 times) than the cast iron pumps. An average life of a SS pumps is also less than a cast iron pump. For India, cast iron pumps are ideal as they are better value for money and more robust considering the field conditions.

 

Till now AC motors were widely used for pumps. However, due to anticipated rise in demand for solar pumps, a few companies have developed DC motors. Being new to India, there is no supply chain to manufacture DC motors. There are maintenance issues with DC motors, which are not successful in higher HP (hence are available only upto 2-3 HP). DC motors mainly find application in domestic market as agriculture applications need higher power motor (3-5 HP pumps).

 

Another area of interest is IoT (Internet of Things) enabled pumps which can be operated using mobile phones. However, this is an add-on application which does not bring any change to the pumpset. The IOT enabled device is integrated with the starter and is already available in the market.