Electrotherm (India) Limited is an ISO 9001: 2008 certified, public limited conglomerate. Established in 1983, Electrotherm's growth has been phenomenal especially during last 5 years. It was rated as one of as the fastest growing midsize companies having turnover between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,000 crore by Business Today (May 2008). A multi-product, multi-location company with interests in the field of engineering, steel and electric vehicles, Electrotherm has already crossed turnover of Rs 2,000 crore in financial year 2009-10.

The Engineering & Projects (E&P) Division of Electrotherm is the leader in designing and manufacturing of induction furnaces, electric arc furnaces, metal refining konverter (AOD), ladle refining furnaces and other metallurgical equipment catering to mini steel plants, foundries and heat treatment shops. It is the first company in India to launch battery-operated two wheelers known as 'YoBykes'.

Besides, it has integrated mini steel plant with installed capacity of over 350,000 TPA for making structural steel, alloy steel and stainless steel billets and long products starting with coal-based Direct Reduced Iron (DRI). It also has ductile iron pipe plant through mini blast furnace - induction furnaces - converter route for producing over 150,000 TPA of DI pipes. Electrotherm generates around 30 MW captive power partially through waste heat recovery boiler utilising flu gas generated from DRI plant. Recently, Electrotherm has also entered into transmission line towers and renewable energy business as well.

The stupendous growth the company has achieved would not have been possible without the focus it brought on export of plant and machinery and turnkey projects for Mini Steel Plants in year 2005-06. Since then the company's exports have grown exponentially and reached almost Rs 200 crore in FY 2008-09. The E&P Division has exported over 380 furnaces in 35 countries around the world, besides installing over 2600 furnaces in India. In the last 3-4 years it has executed several overseas projects on turnkey basis and some of the recently executed mini steel plant projects on turnkey/semi-turnkey basis include three plants in Turkey each for 220,000 TPA capacity; one 80,000 TPA plant in Iran; two plants (100,000 TPA and 125,000 TPA) in UAE; one 110,000 TPA plant in Saudi Arabia; one 220,000 TPA plant in Iraq; and several plants in Nigeria and Pakistan. Besides, over 120 furnaces have been exported by the company in various parts of the world during the same period.

After successfully commissioning the world's largest induction furnace of 40-tonne capacity for billet making recently, the company is all set to excel in Mini Steel Plant segment providing entrepreneurs around the world a more competitive route for steel making. For that reason, Electrotherm is considered as the world's most preferred mini steel plant maker up to 0.5 million TPA capacity through various alternative routes.

Visionary Leader

The man behind this multi-faceted enterprise is Mr Mukesh Bhandari, the founder, chairman and CTO of Electrotherm (I) Limited and its group companies headquartered at Ahmed-abad. A graduate in Electrical Engineering of 1972 batch from the Shri G S Institute of Technology & Science, Indore, before founding Electrotherm in 1983, he worked with BHEL (R&D) and GEC. He is the recipient of the Young Electronic Engineer of the Year Award, 1987 by the then President of India, Giani Zail Singh. He founded Electrotherm, in 1983, as a company having interests primarily in engineering and technology. The company designed, developed, manufactured and sold metallurgical equipment (that were being imported during those days) to the customers at a very competitive price and in few years Electrotherm became the market leader in this competitive segment. Under his leadership, the R&D function developed the DC arc furnace, induction melting furnace, induction heating and hardening equipment, and the ladle refining furnace.

His core values of innovation and timely product delivery became the organisational values and the company has stood the test of time by following those values by being the market leader in the segments represents. Under his stewardship the company is today amongst the foremost power electronics and metallurgical equipment engineering companies of the world having its network spread across as many as 27 places in India and also in Africa, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, Russia and other CIS countries. More than 18 million tonnes of steel is being produced in the induction furnaces manufactured by Electrotherm.

Considering the growth opportunities available in India, he planned for company's growth by diversifying in steel business in 2003 and put up a 0.5 million integrated steel plant to produce TMT bars, angles, billets and DI pipes. Electro TMT bar is a well recognised and preferred product in Gujarat and the company is among the very few manufacturers of DI pipes in the country. In the year 2009, it started manufacturing special application transformers, transmission line towers and solar water heaters. Such diversification gave the company a 90% growth continuously for five years. Electrotherm's turnover increased from a mere Rs 30 crore in 2003 to a whopping Rs 2000 crore in 2010.

Under Mr Bhandari's strong leadership and with power electronics as core strength, the company diversified into electric vehicles business in February of 2006, and in a year, it won the "Overdrive Automotive Product of the Year Award 2007".

Also, its electric vehicle brand "YoBykes" has become synonymous with electric two-wheelers in the country. Along the way, he also picked up a string of awards and recognition. To mention a few, these are: VASVIK Research Award for contribution in the field of Electrical Sciences and Technology at the hands of MGK Menon, then Union Minister for S&T; IFEX Award, IEEMA Awards, FIE Foundation Award for eminence in the field of engineering, at the hands of Chandra Shekhar former Prime Minister of India; Special Recognition Award for Indigenous Development of Technology, instituted by SIDO, Ministry of Industries, at the hands of R Venkatraman; Udyog Patra given by former Vice President of India, Shri S D Sharma; IIM Binatone Award and Dhatu Nayak Award for three consecutive years; Professional Excellence Award by Rotary International District 3050 in the year 2008; award for 75th Best Performing mid-sized enterprises in India 500 in the year 2009; and the INDINOX award by ISDO from the hands of Union Steel Minister Veer Bhadra Singh, in January 2010.

Since 1994, Electrotherm group has been promoting higher and technical education in the state of Gujarat. The group has established two institutes, viz., IITE (Indus Institute of Technology and Engineering) to produce good engineers and WIIA (Western India Institute of Aeronautics) engaged in flying training, maintenance and overhaul of Cessna 152, 172, Piper Seneca, Piper Aztec and their components.

An ardent flyer, Mr Bhandari is a registered HAM hand and a person looking for new avenues to utilise his ability as a creative entrepreneur. He is the member of Iron & Steel Society, USA; Institution of Indian Foundry men, SAE and ASM International. Mr Bhandari's contribution to the Indian metallurgical field not only brought him laurels but also saved a lot of foreign exchange to the exchequer.

(Mr Mukesh Bhandari, the founder, chairman and CTO of Electrotherm (I) Limited. Tel: 02717-660550, 660617. Email: mb@electrotherm.com)