TRL Krosaki Refractories Limited (formerly known as Tata Refractories Limited) is currently a subsidiary of Krosaki Harima Group, Japan, which is the world's fourth largest refractories manufacturer. TRL Krosaki’ s Main Plant is located at Belpahar, Odisha, India, and has several operating facilities around the country in Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. The company's annual turnover stands at around Rs. 2000 Crores.
In an exclusive meeting with The Industry Outlook Magazine, P.B. Panda, Managing Director at TRL Krosaki Refractories walks us through the unique traits of the company:
Elucidate On The Overall Journey Of The Company Since Its Inception? Elaborate With Respect To The Growth It Has Received In Terms Of Clientele And Geographical Presence.
TRL Krosaki Refractories Limited (formerly Tata Refractories Limited) is now a part of Krosaki Harima Group, Japan, which is the 4th largest refractories manufacturer in the world. TRL Krosaki, the Premier Refractories Company in India, is the only refractories company to have all kinds of refractories products under one roof. Its Main Plant is located at Belpahar, Odisha, India. It also has multiple operations facilities spread across the country in the states of Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. The company’s Annual Revenue stands at around Rs. 2000 Crores
The Company was incorporated in the year 1958 as a joint venture of Tata Steel Limited, India and Didier Werke, Germany under the name of 'Belpahar Refractories Limited' and subsequently in 1986 the name changed to ‘Tata Refractories Limited.’ In 2011, Krosaki Harima Corporation, Japan acquired the major share in the company, which helped the Company to access world class refractories technology for its long-term growth.
TRL Krosaki is the only Indian company which manufactures Dolomite Refractories. After being a part of the Krosaki Group, the company set up a modern Tap Hole Clay Plant and very recently, it also commissioned an Alumina Graphite Plant. Both the plants has been designed and developed with complete technology support from Krosaki Group. During the course of its long journey since its inception, the Company also kept investing from time to time to modernise the plant equipment and facilities, improve productivity and add capacities. This justifies the Company’s tagline – “Getting younger, growing stronger”.
Today, TRL Krosaki Refractories Limited is one-stop-shop for all kind of Refractories like Burnt Basic, Direct Bonded Mag-Chrome, Magnesia Carbon, Dolomite, Alumina, Silica, Monolithic, Flow Control, RH Snorkel, Tap Hole Clay and Alumina Graphite Refractories. We now have modern manufacturing facilities, a state-of-the-art Research & Development Centre and NABL Certified Laboratory, which is also located at Belpahar, Odisha. TRL Krosaki is the first refractories company in India to be certified with Integrated Management System (IMS) and Information Security Management System (ISMS).
As far as our presence in the market is concerned, TRL Krosaki is having more than 25% share in Indian Refractories market with a client list comprising of Integrated Steel plants, Alloy Steel Plants, Stainless Steel Plants, Cement, Aluminium, Copper, Zinc, Power & Boiler. We have a strong network of retail business in India for the MSME segment.
In case of overseas business TRL Krosaki is an established player in different countries with the product line of Dolomite Refractories, Direct Bonded Mag-Chrome Refractories, Silica Refractories, Monolithic Refractories, Mag-C Refractories etc. In fact, we are the leader in exporting refractories to other countries in different sub-continents.
What Are The Major Expectations Of The Clients From The Players In This Space? How Has The Company Positioned Itself To Meet Those Expectations?
In today’s scenario the main expectation from the user industries is assurance of uninterrupted supply of high performance and high-quality refractories. In recent times, the refractories Industry is facing the challenges in terms of huge increase in the input costs like raw materials, Furnace Oil, Coal etc. The situation has further worsened due to abrupt hike in Ocean Freight and turmoil in global supply chain management. The refractories Industry encountered severe problems in terms of getting the quality raw materials across the Globe.
We have strengthened our raw material Recyclingand reuse capability which will help us to develop Alternative composition and help reduce consumption of Primeraw materials
Apart from the capacity and Technology upgradation, TRL Krosaki also focuses on sourcing of the raw materials from multiple sources across the globe. In some of the product lines like Silica and Fireclay, we have our captive mines. We maintain a sufficient inventory position of critical raw materials so that our customers should not suffer in case of any unforeseen situations of raw materials scarcity. With this, TRL Krosaki ensures to maintain a continuous supply chain of the refractories to our customers.
Besides the above, we have deployed technically competent teams and modern equipment at key customer sites to provide high quality service at site with utmost safety.
What Is Your Company’s Export Performance? What Is Your Strategy To Increase The Global Customer Base? Is There Any Plan For New Tie-Ups?
TRL Krosaki, a pioneer in refractories Technology is now having a widespread business across the Globe. Our export business covers around 25% of the total revenue. Today, TRL Krosaki is having a regular and stable business in different countries across the Globe like South America, Europe, United Kingdom, Middle East, Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, SAARC countries etc.
In fact, we have been the recipient of ‘CAPEXIL Top Export Award’ regularly for more than 10 years now. We have been approaching our global customers with the new generation refractories with cutting-edge Technology. We have been consistently working to build world class products capable of matching stringent specifications and other requirements and we aspire to achieve an annual revenue of Rs 500 Crores through our export sales.
At this point in time, we do not have any plans for venturing into any tieups.
What Are The Initiatives Being Taken By TRL Krosaki In Tune With The Government’s “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” Campaign?
The biggest challenge for us, as far as “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” is concerned, happens to be our dependence on different countries including China for high quality raw materials. In fact, this has been the key concern for most of the refractory companies. However, internally we have been working relentlessly to develop alternative sources within the country to address the issue. We have strengthened our raw material recycling and reuse capability which will help us to develop alternative composition and help reduce consumption of prime raw materials. Our R&D teams is persistently working on developing alternative / substitute materials with an objective of improving quality of product as well as reduce dependency on any particular quality of raw material.
As far as our customers are concerned, we can definitely make them “Aatmanirbhar” with our capacity to produce more than 4 Lac MT of high-quality refractory products per annum to cater to their refractories need. And having, all types of products under one roof also helps.
Would You Like To Launch New Products And Services To Meet The Growing Demand Of The Refractory Market?
In the current market scenario with changing technologies, “agility” will help to survive and sustain. To remain agile, the organizations need to learn and lead and not to follow. We recognize this and have been working in the areas of developing new/customized products, enhance our level of technical services etc.
We make full use of contemporary IT enabled business tools, be it keeping current with SAP-HANA or implementation of integrated cloud computing-based customer relationship management system or working with Computer Vision Solutions etc. We will be continuously working towards launching new products and services to create a differentiator at the market place and addressing the customers’ requirements.
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