Taking to ET Now, Nitin Menon , JMD, Menon Bearings , says already working on 2020 emission norms at the moment.



Edited excerpts :

There is a lot of buzz in the segment for M&A. What is calling for this consolidation in the sector?

See the consolidation in the sector has been taking place since many years. For example,Menon Bearings is in engine bearings in the automotive sector. In automotive sector, there are may be four-five players in India. If you see M&A in the engine bearing space, Kirloskar had a division called Kirloskar Bearings which was taken over by Kolbenschmidt that is KSPG and there was a bearing company which was owned by the Anand Group which is now owned by Federal Mogul. There is a company called Bimetal of the Amalgamation Group but it has some sort of a tie up with a Japanese company. The fourth organised player is Menon Bearings and we are still an Indian company.

The bearing market in India combining both organised and unorganised is very large. At what rate do you think it could grow?

TimkenBSE -0.13 % or ABC are basically into roller and spherical and ball bearings. We are into engine bearing space. The engine bearing space in India would be around Rs 600 to 800 crore. In the organised sector, the four of us may have a 25-30% share. The remaining is in the unorganised sector.


Would you also be looking at such capacity expansion? Does it make sense
to look at the underutilised players where there is an inefficiency in
functioning? Look at those entities, buy them out for the spare capacity to
augment yours?


We are purely in the automotive and engine sector. In the engine sector, it is a very critical part. We make bearings which have affected the emission standards.

We are into an engine part where we started working on BS IV three-four years back. We are already working on 2020 emission norms at the moment. Engine bearing is a very niche segment.

So basically you do not feel the need to go and acquire a smaller entity
or a mid sized entity or for that matter any player in the unorganised
sector?

At the moment, we are operating at around 70-75% of capacity. Our order book position is full and the engine bearing is a very critical part. It is not I should not be saying this but the ball bearing business is a little bit like a commercial thing, it is imported in a big way, it is used in a variety of applications.

With Menon Bearings as a company is into high technology end where we are
working on lead free materials and like I said for emission norms it is all very strict manufacturing processes and all where the capacities and technologies have to be built in house.

At the moment, we have no plans of any M&A or other thing.