The Hindu Business Line : India is home to best engineering talent, says Flowserve chief

Awarded: The President and Chief Executive Officer of Flowserve, Mr Lewis M. Kling (left), presenting the ’Spirit of Flowserve CEO Leadership Award’ to Mr V. Asokan, Director , Sales and Operations, Flowserve Pump Division, in Coimbatore on Tuesday. At right is the President of Flowserve’s India operations, Mr S. Gopinath. —

Our Bureau

Coimbatore, July 14 India is not merely a low-cost manufacturing destination but is home to some of the best engineering talent worldwide, according to Mr Lewis M. Kling, President and CEO, Flowserve Corporation.

Flowserve designs some of its best products in Chennai, said the head of the $4.5-billion US company whose products play a key role in the infrastructure sector.

The company is confident of sustaining the 35 per cent compounded annual growth of its Indian operations and plans to expand its manufacturing facility here to cater to the emerging demand from the nuclear energy segment.

Speaking to newspersons here on Tuesday, he said during the financial year endedDecember 31, 2008, Flowserve Corporation had achieved a global turnover of $4.47 billion. Of this, around $0.25 billion was the contribution of its Indian operations. In India, Flowserve, which manufactures a range of products such as pumps, valves and seals required by power, oil, gas, chemical and other industries, has joint ventures with L&T and the Sanmar group, apart from its own independent companies.

Mr. Kling said people talk of India as a “great place to get low-cost manufacturing”. But the company has found that “we get some of the best engineers in the world here in India” and the company makes designs for most of its seals in Chennai where it has an engineering centre, apart from the one at Bangalore.

The low cost of manufacturing was “really a secondary issue” and it was the quality of people, quality of engineering and the on-time delivery and the people here were among the best of the best.

Mr Thomas E. Ferguson, Senior Vice-President, said the company’s Indian operation has been logging a compounded annual growth of about 35 per cent since 2001 and he was confident of sustaining this performance.

Mr Mark A. Blinn, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, said investments for the Coimbatore plant expansion depended a lot on the market.

The Coimbatore facility of Flowserve Corporation has won the ‘Spirit of Flowserve CEO Leadership Award’ for 2009 - the highest award given to a facility of Flowserve each year. The Coimbatore facility manufactures pumps for the oil and gas and energy industry.

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