Daramic , an Asahi Kasei Group company, and one of the world’s leading manufacturers of battery separators for automotive, industrial and specialty application is looking to capitalize on this opportunity as they continue to expand their presence in India.
Having set up their first manufacturing plant in Dahej, Gujarat in 2017, the company has gone on to expand from 2 to 4 production lines in a short span of 4 years owing to the growing demand from India and neighboring markets.
In this interview, Mr. Ahila Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director, Daramic share their plans about their business and operations in India, challenges and opportunities in the sector, and future outlook for the region.
Tell us about the Daramic Company, its interests and manufacturing activities?
Daramic was established in the United States in 1930 and invented the PE separators in 1969 for lead acid batteries. Since then, the company has been a leader in the lead acid battery industry. Although, Daramic catered to major battery manufacturers directly from their global plants, they set up shop in India by acquiring Supertech, Bangalore and expanded their PE finishing facility to meet the needs and demands of even the smaller battery manufactures. Daramic expanded its finishing setup by setting up a plant in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh to serve customers in North India. In 2017, Daramic established PE manufacturing plant in Dahej, Gujarat, which also houses their R&D centre. Within 14 months of ground breaking, in January 2016, the Dahej plant was up and running with two production lines by early 2017. In 2021, the company doubled its production capacity by adding two more lines. Currently Daramic is the largest separator supplier in the Indian markets.
What are the products and services offered by Daramic in India? Please elaborate.
Daramic is the world’s leading manufacturer of PE separators. We invented the PE separator nearly five decades back and still continue to hold the largest share in the world. This we have achieved only by having our sight always focussed on customer needs first.
We work closely with the customer, identify their needs, and develop products to meet specific regional needs. We invest heavily in R&D in not only developing separators but our technical service team has relevant experience in the battery manufacturing process, which helps them in addressing concerns if any of the customers that they face in their process.
We just do not supply separators but give end-to-end support to our customers to make a better battery.
Share info about the manufacturing facility with respect to location and what is the turnover capacity? Do you meet supply and demand for neighboring countries also?
We have two plants in India, one at Dahej, Gujarat and the other at Baddi, Himachal Pradesh.
The Dahej plant is the mother plant having both manufacturing and finishing capabilities of PE separators. Our Baddi, Himachal Pradesh plant is a finishing plant that caters to the needs of small to large-scale manufacturers who want customised product solution ready to use for their batteries.
With our Dahej and Baddi plants we are able to meet the full demand of all major customers in India and command the highest market share in the country.
Dahej plant also houses one of the three R&D centres that Daramic has globally. We developed exclusive separators like HiCharge and RickLife to meet region specific needs for Inverter and E-Rickshaw battery application at our India R&D centre.
How did you evaluate the demand and increased production lines from 2 to 4 in India within a span of 4 years?
We established our Dahej, Gujarat plant in 2017 with two production lines for which we got unprecedented support from all the leading battery manufactures. We realized that there is a growing demand in India for lead acid batteries, and we were in a unique position to fill the void in that industry and that two lines of production were not enough to meet this growing demand, which led us to the decision of setting up two new lines of production. Setting up these two new lines of production also meant that we would be able to supply our products to countries around the Indian subcontinent, thereby retaining a large portion of the global market share within this industry.
What are the trends and innovation happening around the lithium-ion battery industry?
Globally, one of the biggest topics of discussion within this industry is regarding EVs. Experts all over the world are contemplating whether or not EVs will eventually replace the cars that we currently use. However, we believe that lead acid batteries are here to stay, at least for the next 2 decades. Making a complete shift to EVs by 2030 is not a viable option, and poses a significant number of challenges, especially when it comes to India. If India does make the shift, they will still be a need for lead-acid batteries to provide auxiliary power.
The increase in the number of e-rickshaws is also something that has aided the growth of the lead-acid battery industry. Due to the demanding nature of its applications, e-rickshaws require four batteries with a total life span of 6-8 months, which Daramic is working on increasing.
In India specifically, one of the bigger trends that we have witnessed is the use of lead-acid batteries for stationary use. The country has a huge demand for lead-acid batteries for residential and commercial uses, which further drives up the demand for our products. Lead-acid batteries are also being used in rural projects across the country. These batteries are being used in locations that have little to no access to electricity and power, and are also being used in streetlamps across the country.
What would be the exciting industry developments to look forward to in 2022?
We are expecting a huge rise in demand for inverters from rural areas and tier 2 and tier 3 cities for inverters, especially in areas where power outages are common. The Indian Government has been working to bring electricity to rural parts of the country and has made significant improvement in expanding the electrification reach. With the efforts of electrification being expanded to all parts of the country and the increasing purchasing capacity of the people, inverters are going to be in demand in these regions as people will feel the need to have a continuous supply of power. Even though the peak demand deficit in the country is coming down but we continue to see double digit growth in the inverter market segment.
There is also a huge push for EVs in the country. However, shifting entirely to EV’s in such a short time seems over ambitious as even today. However even if it happens, the EV’s will still need a lead acid battery to provide for auxiliary power which is all based on 12V system.
E-Rickshaws in different parts of the country are also one of the key drivers in the growth of lead acid batteries as they require four batteries in one E-Rickshaw and the average life of these batteries is only 6-8 months. With all these factors, which are driving the demand of the lead acid batteries, we are very confident that this industry will continue to see double digit growth in the coming decade.
What milestones are targeted in terms of research, technology development, and market expansion and revenue generation by end of next year?
Technology for lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries is constantly evolving and our R&D centers in Gujarat enable us to specifically target the emerging needs of the Indian consumer base. Our main focus in terms of research and technological development pertains to the increasing the performance of the battery under extreme conditions like batteries being used in e-rickshaws, inverters and street lamps. We are also looking to focus on battery improvements for start-stop technologies, which are slowly being introduced in India.
When it comes to market expansion, we are eager to tackle the needs of the Indian consumer market for the energy, automotive and inverter industry. With our expansion to 4 lines of production, we will now be able to tackle the growing need within the Indian industry. If the need arises, we will look to expand further to provide our products to the Indian industry, as well as to neighboring countries where our production units currently do not exist.