...says L Krishnan, Managing Director, TaeguTec India Pvt Ltd. Krishnan has over 35 years of experience in manufacturing, marketing, application and sales of industrial products in various reputed organisations. In this interaction, Krishnan discusses trends in metalcutting tools industry and TaeguTec’s India plan.

 

What types of products and services are offered by TaeguTec?

 

TaeguTec India is a leading supplier of modern machining solutions to a wide variety of industries such as automotive, mould and die, aerospace, power generation and many others. Established in the year 2000 in the garden city of Bangalore, the TaeguTec India product lines of Tungsten Carbide cutting tools include inserts and holder bodies for turning, milling, drilling, grooving, parting applications and Solid Carbide tools and tooling systems. With an entire range of turnkey solutions and tailor-mades, TaeguTec is considered the most preferred tooling partner in the industry and by our customers for improving productivity and cost efficiency in the shop floor. Headquartered in Daegu (South Korea), TaeguTec is a part of the second biggest cutting tool manufacturing group in the world - the IMC International Metalworking Companies.

 

How has been the demand for TaeguTec products? Which industries are driving the demand? 

 

The demand for metalcutting tools can be primarily traced to the metalworking manufacturing industries in general. Auto & auto components form a significant portion of metalworking in the country and drive the significant portion of demand for cutting tools. We also see increasing demand from other sectors like aerospace, power, railways to name a few. 

 

What are the latest trends cutting tools segment in particular? 

 

The developments in the cutting tool industry are driven by trends in metal working industries. Broad trends observed are change of materials; more frequent model changes, necessitating higher levels of flexibility; environmental considerations leading to higher emission standards in automotive industry; and higher use of automation at customer industries require tool performance to be stable and predictable. In addition to all the above, need for higher productivity and lower cost of manufacturing are driving innovation in products and processes.

 

Will the push to encourage domestic production in defence & aerospace industries open up new opportunities? 

 

Make in India efforts will certainly result in higher demand from industries like defence and aerospace in the medium to long term. These demands will be very different from those arising in the automotive and auto parts setups, due to materials and volumes of manufacturing. 

 

Are you seeing a rise in demand for automation in machine tools industry? 

 

Due to rising wages, lack of availability of skilled manpower and quality considerations, more and more customers are deploying varying levels of automation to drive efficiency. Even with all these efforts, as a country, however, our use of automation is quite low. We believe automation will accelerate growth in the coming years.

 

What are your growth plans?

 

TaeguTec, being a part of an MNC group, has solutions for all types of metalworking industries like auto, auto parts, power, defence, die & mold, etc. We have a very large mother plant in South Korea, one that is well complemented by state-of-the-art facility in India. 

We have a well-trained sales and application team available across the country for easy access and service for our customers, and are well poised to take advantage of the Make in India push and anticipated growth in the manufacturing industry.