Ongoing rise of Air Conditioners and Refrigerators in the market and production in GCC and other part of the world and Heat Transfer Systems in engineering industries and automobile sectors all over the world, makes Copper tubes an essential and unmatched engineering material as Copper possesses superior heat transfer properties with excellent corrosion resistant. Seamless Copper Tubes meeting the specification requirements of ASTM B68, ASTM B280 and JIS H3300 for ACR applications are in a commanding and challenging position in the market. Conventional technology and tube mills are getting outdated as superior new generation software based tube mills have already shaped up and proved their efficiency and quality in production in this technology era and provides platform for producing superior quality tubes. As old companies with conventional machines struggle for their survival, as Quality and Cost are the prime concern governing the market and business world today, new ventures are shaping up and establishing bases to conquer the market. Process technology: An existing plant at Sultanate of Oman cannot hold its position strong as far the market trend is concerned as its lack of symmetry in the process equipments to produce tubes meeting the requirements of primary users. A new venture with modern facility and technology in GCC can shine well at this stage of boost-up industrial segment – A/Cs and Heat Transfer systems. A proven and new technology “CAST AND ROLL TUBE PROCESS†from OUTOKUMPU, Finland – a pioneer in the field of Copper and Seamless Copper Tubes and machineries and tube mill, having joint ventures in America, Asia and Europe – is focused in this report, considering its ingenious design of providing a single platform for producing world class copper tubes of today’s expectation of customers, eliminating tedious extrusion and pilgering processes and thus cut down in capital investment, superior quality, higher recovery of material and reduction in manpower enhances profitability. A 12,000 TPA capacity plant is proposed and it can be expandable to 20,000 TPA. The market: Market analysis in the GCC bloc shows a positive growth and potential market segment exists within GCC countries. Exports to Asian and Middle East countries seems to be bright as exports from GCC incur lower freight charges, which enhances reduction in cost over material procurement at customers end as compared with imports from Japan or European countries. Finance forecast: A capital investment of USD 15/- million has been estimated for setting up the plant and machineries. Pre-operative cost and running capital of One million USD for a 12,000 TPA output is calculated keeping the average LME price settlement of raw material price. Cash flow and profitability analysis shows a net profit of USD 3.85 million after depreciation and interest for a 12,000 TPA turnover and USD 8.75 million for 20,000 TPA is envisaged. Comments: Though SWOT analysis focuses the proposed plant’s merits and demerits, the steady growth and sustaining economy in GCC bloc and government grants and concessions to new ventures and ongoing market demand for Copper Tubes for ACR applications and performances of joint venture companies in the field perhaps encourages the project with an optimistic note of establishing a joint venture with a leading firm in this field. Project Concept, Process and Production The concept of the project as stated below the envisaged global rise in heat transfer industry and subsequent market requirement for Seamless Copper Tubes, entails setting up a 12,000 TPA Copper Tube Plant to cater the requirement of GCC countries and the sub-continent. Use of room air-conditioners both window and split types are on the rise since last decade and in this millennium installation of room a/c’s are of the increase in Asian countries as we look at the market survey. Potential market segment is there for room ac’s and MNC’s are setting up various projects in China and India. The market demand is high and market leaders from Japan and South Korea are capturing the market and establishing various joint ventures. A tough competition is on in the market and every manufacturer is chasing the market with quality products with high warranty and innovative schemes. The market demand is very high for the quality ACR Tubes in India and Gulf. In the present market scenario the primary users demand a high degree of quality level and heat transfer efficiency for the ACR Tubes. Moreover, the present trend is much varied from previous market requirements in various aspects and now high efficiency heat-transfer tubes, i.e. “Inner Grooved Tubes†are of high demand. Seeing the present stringent quality requirements of ACR tubes, the process needs advanced technology and high degree of automation for attaining “Zero Defect Conceptâ€Â. The old technology is getting outdated and the companies which do not have the foresight to switch over to the present market trend requirements has to struggle for their existence unless they invest sooner possible for imparting new technology and automation in order to maintain stringent quality requirements. On the other hand new investors can have bounteous harvest as they go directly into the main stream. No doubt that the market demand is high and whoever knocks would get the benefit. Even in GCC countries, the demand increased by 100% or more and many secondary users and Air-conditioner assembly units have come up. Saudi based Zamil Air Conditioners and Al-Zamil Refrigeration industries are the primary users of ACR Tubes. In GCC ACR and Heat-transfer Tubes of major market segment are being imported from China & Japan and a meager portion is either from Thailand or Malaysia. India and GCC does not have its own plant to cater their needs. Necessarily an ACR Tube plant with advanced technology to maintain high degree of quality standard is to be established to strengthen its base in India to the expectation of primary users and can play in the sub-continent as well. ACR Tubes – Production Process: Seamless ACR Tubes are produced from DHP Copper – Copper UNS No. C12200 (Phosphorus-Deoxidized, High Residual Phosphorus). The conventional process involves melting of raw material – electrolytic pure cathodes and addition of Cu-P Master alloy for deoxidizing the copper and cast in to billets. The billets are further cut into required sizes and the pre-heated cut billets are extruded in to hollow shells, which are further reduced by cold reduction process called “Pilgering†and the pilgered tubes are fed in to Pull Block (Spinner Block Operation) and reduced to desired thin wall tubes of various sizes. These thin wall reduced tubes are further straightened, non-destructively tested on-line and received as finished tubes. These finished tubes are further loaded for heat treatment operation (Bright Annealing) to various temper conditions – Soft Annealed, Annealed and Half-hard tempers and packed to market requirements. There are two types of Tubes are produced, viz. i. Plain Tubes – these are the commonly used ACR tubes and are the products of the above-described process. ii. Inner Grooved Tubes – These are high heat transfer tubes of high profile in the market segment. Inner grooving operation is done using sophisticated CNC Machines after spinner block operation and before straightening and finishing operation. Inner grooved tubes are being marketed under the trade names “THERMOFIN†(conventional) and “THERMOFIN-EX†(high performance) and are used in both room and unitary air conditioners. Due to their ingenious design, this promotes both energy conservation and allow for more compact air conditioners. The main technical challenge of producing efficient copper tube lies with compactness, heat transfer and condensation performance, while the cost effectiveness of producing tube has to be of prime concern. These tubes are marketed in the under mentioned forms: 1. Straight Lengths (SL) – Upto 6 M or 20 ft. 2. Pancake Coils (PC) - Spirally wound coils normally available at a length of 15 M or upto 50 ft. 3. Level Wound Coils (LWC) - Transverse wound coils – min. of 180 Kg is the present market demand. New Technology Continuous research and development programs in the field of “Science & Technology†brought forth tremendous change in the present world. In every field of engineering constant attention has been focused on to develop innovative modules of processing so as to excel and attain defect free products with excellent qualities. As we look up the developments in electronics and automation, the conglomeration of electronics and mechanics have given out machineries for process automation and the industries have benefited much out of quality products. Always in conventional processes, we can see considerable material waste and lacks in quality as these are more depends on skilled manpower. In Copper tube manufacturing, the material waste is calculated around 32% and only 75% of the wasted material is made available for recycling and this led to high production cost in addition to surplus manpower involvement. Finland based copper giant Outokumpu has developed a new generation tube manufacturing unique and proven technology “CAST AND ROLL TECHNOLOGYâ€Â, and established their own pilot plant in Pori, Finland in the year 1987. Cast and Roll Technology supports excellent quality and reduce production cost. The technology is as detailed below. CAST AND ROLLâ„¢ Tube Process This process is a modern new CAST AND ROLLâ„¢ process suitable especially for small to medium scale production of high quality copper tubes. In this process a hollow tube shell is produced by continuous casting and further deformed into a mother tube coil in a planetary rolling mill without any preheating. The mother tube is then drawn into finished dimensions by conventional cold drawing methods. Because of fewer process stages and smaller equipment, the total investment is lower than with conventional processes: the economies of scale are brought down to meet local markets. The production costs are reduced because of high degree of automation, high coil package weight and low energy consumption. Simple tooling and easy maintenance also cut running costs. Hot working of the cast material during rolling results in a homogenized and small grain structure. Inert gas protects the tube from oxidation during hot working. Good concentricity is attained due to the cross-rotational rolling process. All this enables a profitable world-class quality copper tube production, including the most demanding thin wall ACR-tubes. Several commercial plants based on this technology are already in operation (references). CAST AND ROLLâ„¢ Tube Process has got the following tangible advantages over the conventional process.  Plant area would be small  Capital investment is less  Process stages are reduced  Metallurgical properties are good  Wastage of material is reduced to 10%  Manpower involvement is less  Quality of tube is well maintained  Desired coil weight can be achieved The Copper tube manufacturing process consists of the following sections: 1. Melting and Casting Area 2. Tube Rolling Area 3. Tube Drawing 4. Internal groove tubing 5. Heat treatment 6. Packing Market Demand Analysis Having considered the project concept, production process and technology, it deems fit to project the market demand for copper hollows. Copper hollows are used in three distinct types of air conditioning systems, viz. i. Window A/Cs ii. Split units iii. Central air conditioning systems Again, the Indian and GCC market for air conditioning copper tubes, two segments are conceptualized namely, a) ACR Tubes used in the manufacture of A/Cs systems – Primary users b) Service tubes for field used in contractual jobs – Secondary users UAE has two manufacturers of A/C units as detailed below: i. Sharjah and Kuwait Manufacturing Co. Ltd, Sharjah ii. French Gulf A/C & Refrigeration Co., Jebel Ali And one more company in the service field M/s. Juma Al Majid trading and contracting company. In Qatar several contractors are operating in the service fields and no primary user is being identified and yet to be ascertained the primary users of Copper Tubing. Saudi has two primary potential users SAMCO and AL ZAMIL and few contractors in the service field. Kuwait market details are not clear and the market position is yet to be studied. Though A/C manufacturers are not known, contracting field operation in the field is sure and a considerable quantum of copper hollows must be in marketable lead. There are two A/C manufacturers in Bahrain: i. Awal Products W.L.C., Manama ii. Al Khaja Establishment & Factories, Manama The sources of supply of seamless copper tubes are from Japan, USA, Finland and Belgium previously and a meager market segment is captured by east Asian countries. The overall size of market in GCC bloc at present is increased to 106000 MT according to trading information, magazines and ministerial reports and the market base getting expanded as A/C manufacturers are boosting up their operation in GCC region as a supply source to many middle east countries. Besides, market band can be established in Asian countries and in Europe as the market demand is high and the present source is only Japan and once the quality seal is established, can out weigh the Japan market as supplies from GCC fetch considerable gain to the customers on freight charges. Potential Buyers Carrier Corporation Carrier Aircon Ltd LG Electronics Lenox Fedders Air-Conditioning Company Haier Gree Electric Appliances Inc Huabao Air Conditioner Factory Keion Electrical Holding Company Teco Electric & Machinery Co Ltd Matsushita Sanyo Toshiba Carrier Daewoo Electronics OYL Group of Companies Saudi Air-Conditioning Manufacturing Co Ltd Springer Carrier SA Conception Carrier Air-Conditioning Al Zamil Air-conditioner Amtrex Hitachi Videocon Batliboi Blue Star Daikin Industries Subros Voltas Whirlpool Feeders Lloyds SWOT ANALYSIS Product Inner Groove and Plain Copper tubes have the highest market share in the air conditioner and Plumbing industries all over the world especially in GCC Countries, India, South Africa, USA, and Europe etc. Strengths o Good Quality GCC Product – thereby saving customs duty, low freight, less lead time and better service. o First Copper tube manufacturing company in INDIA to introduce the concept Cast & Roll Technology o First to develop inner groove copper tubes in the country. Today, there are over 25 users in GCC Countries, India, South Africa, Pakistan, USA etc who is using this 4th generation inner groove copper tubes. o Complete range of products is possible. o A leading copper tube company is willing to provide technological Know-how support to produce best quality copper tubes. o Plant equipped with world-class latest machinery. o Geographically nearer to the major tube consumers o Less Production Cost with high Quality o Lesser Packaging and transportation cost compared to South East Asian suppliers. Weaknesses o As a new entrant in the market, market base has to be established and the product has to be proved for its quality among customers. o Running the plant needs high caliber professionals in the plant and hardcore marketing team. Opportunities o Since we are close by can capture GCC, USA markets o With the production base within India or GCC, we should be able to react to sudden increase in the market demands. o Production base of competitors are away from GCC and hence more flexibility. o We may have preferential treatment being a Indian product in the Government Projects and some Private Projects. o Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the government to reduce special excise duty (SED) on air-conditioners from 16% to 8% in the forthcoming budget. o Lesser Production Cost thus easy sales o Easy to catch USA, Europe, South Africa and GCC market since the cost of transportation are comparatively less than China, Japan and South East Asian countries. o Al Zamil is a one among the big buyer in Saudi Arabia. Hence our 50 to 60% of the product can be sold. Threats o Increased threat from imports, especially from China and Japan. o Well-established competitors can play crucial roles and potential customers may reluctant to switch over new suppliers. o High competitive pricing by our competitors due to economics may pose high stress on market value and may cause low returns than expected. Notwithstanding the above analysis and situations, steady growth of economies in GCC and the Government willingness to strengthen the growth of industrial sector and encouragement of foreign investment, can set forth certainty of optimistic approach on investment. The added advantages in setting up a Copper Tube plant in one of the GCC country, in particular Oman or Dubai are detailed as under: Why Copper tube Plant to be need to set up in India First Inner groove Copper Tube Plant INDIA and get pioneer status Ultra Modern Port Facilities Modern International Airports Accessibility to the Customers Best Government Policies to promote Hi-tech Industries Relief from import duty exemption on imports of machinery and raw material for some period. Soft Loans with low interest rates. Fully serviced Industrial Estates/Free Trade Zone across the country offers investors a comprehensive infrastructure to set up a manufacturing base. An Excellent Urban Network of Roads & Waterways to most Middle East Countries and Europe. Better Information Technology Set up Middle East, South Africa, USA, some European countries and India are importing Copper tubes from China, Japan and South East Asian Countries. If we manufacture these Copper Tubes either in India, we can capture these markets easily since we are nearby and the Quality and Price are so attractive.