The Indian market for low-voltage drives is forecast to grow at approximate CAGR of 3 per cent

Founded in 1915, Yaskawa is one of world’s largest manufacturers of motion control products for industrial automation and OEMs. Yaskawa’s journey in India began with the business of PLC in1980 and AC drives in 1990 and steadily expanded to accommodate growing customer needs.Yaskawa India addresses innovation in drives and motion control and robotics automation. Arjun Gopal, Senior Manager, Key Account Development – HVAC, Water & Textile Business, Yaskawa India discusses the requirement of textile industry with respect to drives and motors and the latest innovations in this field.

How would you describe the market for motors & drives in India? How has the market grown in the last 5 years?
The Indian market for low-voltage drives was worth just under $300 million in 2019 before the pandemic hit in 2020 despite the Indian rupee depreciating against the US dollar. There is a large installed base of low-voltage motors, providing a stable retrofit market for low-voltage drives. Government initiatives such as “Make in India,” the unified goods and services tax (GST), and the Smart Cities Mission are providing further opportunities for suppliers of low-voltage drives. The Indian market for low-voltage drives is forecast to grow at approximate CAGR of 3 per cent from 2015, making it one of the fastest growing sub-regions in the Asia-Pacific.

What are the pivotal drivers influencing this market?
Increasing urbanisation and industrialisation, rising need for energy efficiency, and regulations on energy efficiency are major factors driving the AC drives market.

According to the World Economic Forum, India is now the world’s fastest growing large economy

The Make in India initiative is to encourage global players to set up factories to cater locally as well as a manufacturing hub to the world.

The manufacturing sector has the potential to grow six-fold by 2025 up to $ 1 trillion, creating 90 million jobs. Digitisation has given rise to the phenomenon of smart manufacturing, paving the way to Industry 4.0

Private mega infrastructure projects worth USD 2.68 billion cleared: Commercial establishments, SMEs, telecom infra, IT/ITES, healthcare, hospitality, electronics and industrial systems in manufacturing, defence, industry and banking.

Which are your major markets in terms of applications and geographies?
Historically, Yaskawa has been globally a supplier of AC drives for niche and critical applications catering to variety of segments like textile (both wet and dry process) , material handling( cranes , conveyors etc) , process applications like cement , power and metal & mining. Geographically our major parts of our installations are in high GDP states like Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

What factors do textile manufacturers take into account when it comes to drives & motors?
Textile manufacturers traditionally take into couple of factors into account while choosing drives which are basically:
1. Reliability (drives and motors have to run in very harsh environments where in you find dust , chemicals in the environment commonly)
2. Customisation Capability ( apart from using a standard drive as such , there is huge capability in drives to get customised according to applications thereby either in hardware or software customisation)

What are the latest innovations in this segment?
Energy consumption in textile manufacturing processes are quite high and there is growing realisation on its impact on environment. Climate change, energy conservation and power quality concerns are now significant enough for consumers to demand products and solutions that address these core issues. Yaskawa had envisaged these challenges decades ago and had invested significant resources in R&D efforts to develop technology products like the Matrix Converter (for ultra-low harmonics), 3-level PWM output (for better motor performance) and IOT based solutions for the digital factory of the future.

What are your growth strategies for 2021?
We are going to consolidate on our position as one of the leaders in AC drives market in India by continuing to offer different solutions for different segments and applications. We are also going to introduce new drives to our product portfolio to further strengthen our offering the market in India.

What are the challenges that the motors & drives industry encounters? What would be your suggestions to overcome them?
Challenges include awareness on improved energy efficiency while using AC drives and high taxes on energy efficient products like drives. Still there are only hardly 20-30 drives used per 100 motors being sold in India.

Example the building sector in India consumes approximately 30 per cent energy in India and invariably these buildings have variety of motor applications with reduced requirement of speeds which is possible only with AC drives. If all of these are implemented there would be huge reduction in energy consumption and increase in demand for drives.

Some suggestions would include incentivising industries going for better energy efficiency which enables increase in using AC drives. Also reduction in the tax structure for these products coupled with increased government spending would be a growth driver for these products.

What percentage share does textile industry hold in the sales of motors & drives at Yaskawa?
Currently Yaskawa India promotes only AC drives in India and South Asia although we also manufacture AC motors in Japan and we hold around 22 per cent market share in textile industry for AC drives in India.