BHS breaks the ground for first manufacturing unit in India

The ceremony marked the start of a new chapter for BHS. The manufacturing campus will be a host for the corrugating rolls factory, data centre, and spare parts warehouse.  

The event was attended by key customers, team members, and key stakeholders. The ceremony started with traditional prayers and rituals. This was a symbolic moment that marked the beginning of the building process and signalled the company’s commitment to bringing this project to fruition. 

The facility will be a green building with all the advanced features. It will house a corrugation rolls manufacturing unit and an SF-I assembling unit, along with other facilities. 

The SF-I can run at the speed of 150-m/min and is available in two working widths — 1,800- and 2,200-mm. The newly launched equipment weighs 23 tonnes and requires a connected load of 64-kva.

Bijendra Sharma, managing director, BHS Corrugated India, said, “We are reintroducing Single Facer India (SF-I) for two main reasons — to create awareness about its features and our offers, and compatibility with the existing corrugation machines.” 

Also, the SF-I would be available to customers in Indian rupees while imports and currency formalities will be taken care of by BHS.  

There are around 400 to 500 automatic corrugation machines in India and most of them are procured from China or Taiwan. So, Sharma said, the company thought about this single facer machine called single facer India (SF-I). This machine is for customers who do not have a BHS machine, so that they can upgrade their existing corrugator with a BHS. The beauty of this product is that it can be easily accommodated into the current system without any issues. 

“Single facer is not new to the Indian market; we are selling it along with complete BHS corrugators for the last many years. Even in Asia Pacific, more than 500 similar single facers are running and 40 of them are already operational in India. Thus, it is a tried and tested product for the Indian market. We are just promoting it in the market in a new way,” he said.

He added, “The pandemic era showed that importing a machine was too difficult. Formalities of import and currency fluctuation are big pain points. From your order till delivery, the currency fluctuated a lot. Logistic cost is another pain point, during Covid, we have seen freight costs go up from USD 2,000 to USD 15,000 per container. If the freight cost is more than your product cost, it doesn’t make sense.”

Initially, the company will import from its Shanghai production site and once our factory is ready by the end of next year, we will start assembling in Pune. 

SF-I is compatible with all the existing automatic corrugation machines from any manufacturer. 

Gunter Huber, head of business unit equipment, said, “India is about to become the third largest market worldwide for this industry, and it will be our honour to support the Indian industry offering sustainable support for the years to come. BHS global community is proud of the recent developments here in India.”

One customer present at event said, “The product launch event was excellent. The new BHS SF-I can add a lot of value to greenfield projects due to various technical advantages, such as the soft touch glue application system as well as the patented line pressure control technology for pressure rolls resulting in better board quality as well as lower maintenance and costs. On the commercial front, it will help in eliminating currency fluctuation risks allowing the prudent Indian customer to pay in Indian rupees. The best part is NICE (not included in capital expenditure) solution, which allows the customer to reduce his investment cost for corrugating rolls and cassettes and pay per linear metre of paper consumed. For brownfield projects, the design of the new SF-I is compact, resulting in easy integration onto existing lines and straight onto the old factory floors in a short time.”

R Balasubramanian, executive director & president, Neueco Pack solutions, said, “From the right source to the right product to the right price, the company helped us upgrade to this impossible machine with ease.”