By IANS
Chennai : Finnish elevator and escalator manufacturer Kone Corp, which has doubled sales in China and India, foresees a smooth ride during this year with the softening of steel prices.
“Last year steel and oil prices went up in Europe and the US affecting us a little. However, we don’t see 2008 to be difficult,” Matti Alahuhta, president and CEO of the company, told IANS here.
Alahuhta was visiting the city to inaugurate the expansion of the firm’s wholly owned Indian subsidiary’s plant and the research and development (R&D) wing.
“For the past several years, Kone has been experiencing good order book growth,” he added.
Kone sees 14 percent of its sales from the Asia-Pacific region, 65 percent from Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21 percent from the US.
The weakening of the US dollar against euro has not affected the company in a major way, Alahuhta said. “All our markets have logged growth in their respective currencies.”
The company is targeting 10 percent growth in sales and 20 percent growth in operating income this year. Much of the growth is happening in Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Eastern Europe and the US.
“In Asia we have doubled our sales in India and China,” he said. Kone has production plants as well as R&D centres in these two countries.
While the Indian plant caters only to the local market, Kone uses the Chinese facility for exports as well.
Amongst its R&D centres in the US, Finland, Italy, China and India, the last two are growing at a fast pace, he said. “The Indian centre develops software and also designs the elevator layout for other markets.”
He said that the Indian subsidiary was the market leader with a 26 percent share in the 20,000 units per annum Indian market. He declined to give sales or production numbers.
In 2006, Kone Elevator India decided to increase its production capacity by 1,000 units to 7,000 units per year.
The other major elevator players in India are Otis, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi and Johnson Lifts.