Report: Motown
India Bureau, Photography: Mohd. Nasir
Company Description: DuPont
India is the wholly owned subsidiary of the US-based E. I. du Pont de Nemours
and Company. DuPont’s relationship with India began more than 200 years ago
when it received its first shipment of raw materials from India to produce
black powder for explosives in 1802. Today, DuPont India markets a wide range
of products in varied market segments. With six production facilities in three
locations, the DuPont Knowledge Center in Hyderabad and the DuPont India
Innovation Center in Pune, DuPont India is delivering science-based solutions
to address the needs of local markets. The material company has developed
certain patented, composite-configurations trademarked under names such as
Tyvek, Nomex, Zytel, Kevlar, Vamac and many others which are used in developing
vehicle components such as fuel tank, oil filter module, air intake manifold,
air cleaner cover, cylinder head cover, air ducts, engine mounts, fuel filler
pipes, hoses, and multiple other parts. Among the OEMs which use DuPont’s
materials are Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor, Toyota Kirloskar
Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto.
DuPont is a well known chemicals
firm which is focussed on developing innovative solutions for the automotive
industry. What are the various themes that you are working on especially in the
Indian market?
DuPont is a 211-year old science company. We
work collaboratively to find sustainable, innovative, market-driven solutions
to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, making lives better, safer,
and healthier for people everywhere. We
focus on three big global challenges- Food, Energy and Protection. We are also
focused on developing innovative solutions for the automotive industry across
eight automotive themes: Sustainability; Alternative Drive; Lightweighting;
Improved Performance; Powertrain Efficiency; Total System Cost; Safety; and Comfort
and Aesthetics (Design). Together we can find the right solutions and build
cleaner, energy-efficient cars that people love to drive. The one which is most
relevant for India is lightweighting.
Globally, one-fifth of DuPont’s
business comes from the auto sector and this is expected to grow multifold. Do
you expect a similar trend in your Indian operations too?
The automotive segment is a strategic
growth market for DuPont globally. We have been associated with this industry
for more than 100 years. The very first car that rolled out from the assembly
line of Ford Motor Company (at Detroit) was DuPont-painted. Even in India, the
automotive segment is one of our strategic growth markets. Currently, close to
10pc (US$ 100 million) of our total revenues (US$ 1 billion) are contributed by
the automotive segment in India. Of course we are extremely optimistic about
the long-term growth potential of this industry in India. This is because 1.6pc of the total Indian
population are car owners today. There is a rising number of young people with
a higher disposable income and conspicuous consumption. Notwithstanding the
downturn in the market in the last few quarters, we are quite confident that
the long term growth story remains robust. Since we are offering scientific
solutions to our clients, we should be growing faster than the automotive
industry.
Does DuPont India collaborate only
with OEMs or do they also partner with auto component firms to deliver both
innovative and sustainable automotive solutions? And are any of your products
supplied to end customers too?
Collaboration has always been our DNA and
we firmly believe in our science-based solutions to truly make a difference. We
make one of the advanced polymers which will be able to replace metals in the automobile
to make them lighter, more efficient, eco-friendly and thereby improve the fuel
efficiency. We also make the resins
worldwide where it is possible to have the economies of scale. We bring those
resins to India and do additional compounding which is then supplied to many
plastic moulding companies based here. These plastic moulding firms then supply
the products to tier-I component makers which finally gets fitted on to the
OEMs’ finished product (vehicle) as an integrated systems supplier. So in this
value chain, we have to work with the entire stakeholders of the automobile
industry. We have to work along with the OEMs to understand what their needs
are from their buyers’ standpoint. We also have to gauge what capabilities and
infrastructure facilities our tier-I suppliers possess. Then we have to finally
go back and work with our plastic moulders. In the entire scheme of things,
materials play a very tiny role and we have to think about combining multiple
streams of science like prototyping, processing, designing, computer
simulation, processing, and putting it all together and create a value. We also
have a few products which go back to the consumers directly. We have ‘Tyvek’
branded car covers which are sold directly to the end buyers through our value
chain partners. ‘Tyvek’ protective vehicle covers were created in response to a
need for a strong, durable protective cover against the elements and
environmental pollution. Vehicle covers made of DuPont Tyvek use a unique
flash-spunbonded process to create a fabric which resists water and damaging UV
rays.
DuPont has opened its global
innovation centre in Pune, which is incidentally its fourth such centre in the
Asia-Pacific region, to address the needs of the automotive segment. So which
are the key areas that this centre is focussing on? And how many engineers are
stationed there?
We strongly believe that we are in the
world where speed and agility are extremely critical business imperatives. We
cannot rely on conventional way of application or innovation development
activities which could take ages. So keeping those trends in mind, DuPont India
established its innovation centre in Pune to focus on India’s fastest growing
automotive industry. It is a strategic expansion primarily focussing on the
automotive segment, and bringing automotive OEMs and component and system
manufacturers together to develop effective solutions for the automotive
industry. It operates as an interface between OEMs in India and 10,000
scientists and experts at DuPont’s 100 R&D Centres across the globe to
provide solutions to help make automobiles faster, lighter, safer and more fuel
efficient. The centre is developing products and solutions in six key areas
that I have already spoken about. It is working on several forms of advanced
materials and processes such as polymers, green materials, and alternate
sources to develop vehicle-specific components made of lighter composites. In this way, we can understand the problem of
Indian consumers and try to delve deeper into their challenges and requirements
and come up with solutions expeditiously.
We focus on all the automotive themes that I have spoken about.
‘Lightweighting’ is one of themes that we are actively working on because it is
of great relevance to India. Initially, it would employ 15-20 engineers which
will be ramped up over the years based on the growth plans we have in the next
few years. The centre collaborates with its 500 scientists and engineers at the
Application Development Centre in Hyderabad which was established a few years
ago. So we are basically leveraging on the local science and technology talents
for solving our global challenges.
Do you foresee any change in the
consumer’s choice when it comes to buying a vehicle? If yes, what solutions is
DuPont India exactly offering to meet those choices?
The Indian consumers are smart and are
evolving in their tastes and preferences. We have discerned the criticality of
fuel efficiency for Indian vehicle owners. Safety is another critical area that
we will be focusing on. We have realised that airbags as a safety aspect is
gaining a lot of prominence (in India). The number of consumers buying
airbags-equipped cars is much higher than what the industry expected it to be.
At the same time, the government also plays a very key role in propagating the
safety aspects of a vehicle. Just like the way the government made it mandatory
to have seatbelts in cars and (wearing) helmets with two-wheelers, they can
also consider the same for airbags for four wheelers. Comfort and aesthetics
are another emerging areas for us. Factors such as the car’s aerodynamic
design, shape, colour, interiors and exteriors, etc are making a huge
difference in developing the final product. The fourth aspect which will
contribute in a small percentage is the green products. Even though such
eco-friendly cars are yet to gain mass acceptance, we do see some sort of
presence of sustainable automobiles and that could be electric vehicles too. So
we will be focussing on the automotive mega trends of the future: faster,
lighter, safer and fuel efficient vehicles.
Your ‘Kevlar’ nylon hybrid cord
fabric adopted by a handful of tyremakers here. So have you been able to offer
this product to other tyremakers in India too?
This is a unique programme that DuPont is
trying to roll out in India. If you look
at truck and bus tyres in India, super bias tyres account for a major chunk of
the volumes unlike radial tyres giving maximum volumes around the world. Moreover, there are two unique challenges in
India. First among them are the potholed roads in this country. Secondly,
overloading (of trucks) is pretty commonplace at every city’s street. So in
such conditions, super bias tyres perform a lot better than radial tyres. So
that’s why India is a unique country where such tyres are predominant. So we
actually work with these super bias tyre manufacturers and help them in
improving their products’ performance so that they can deliver a better
proposition to Indian consumers. So that’s why we have thought about bringing
in the ‘Kevlar’ nylon aramid fibre which is a high-strength material, has a
higher resistance to extreme temperatures, and is used for many applications
around the world. So we are working on
ways to bring in the properties of ‘Kevlar’ and combine them as a mix with the
nylon fibre cord and ultimately bring this value to the tyres. As the
‘Kevlar’-mixed tyre is able to withstand high temperatures; the drivers can
take the vehicle for a much longer distance. Furthermore, the blowout
percentage of the tyres will go down. Thirdly, the rolling resistance of the
tyres reduces thereby enhancing the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. So these
technical attributes helps our products to meet the unique challenges of the
Indian market. What I can confirm at this juncture is that we are already
working with the top three truck tyre manufacturers in the country for the last
two-three years. Now they are in an advantage stage of development undergoing
some fleet tests in different parts of the country in various climatic and road
conditions. So we are hopeful to commercialise our products in the tyre market
by next year.
With more than 10 million cars that
are expected to hit the Indian roads by 2020, what sustainable solutions are
you exactly working on? Can you talk a little bit about that?
Let me talk about a couple of solutions
that we are working on. When asbestos was phased out globally, including India,
we played the role of bringing in ‘Kevlar’ automotive brakepads. The chopped
aramid fibre, which has been used as a replacement for asbestos in brake pads,
is utilised in a sustainable way thus being environment-friendly. That is the
first success story already in India. Secondly, we would be benefitting from
Indian cars being exported to Europe. As
you are aware, any new car introduced in the European market needs to be run on
ultra-low global warming potential refrigerant at 4. The existing refrigerant
has a global warming potential of 1,300. So you can see the dramatic reduction
in the global warming potential. And today, using our science, we have been
able to develop that product which is approved by many OEMs selling their cars
in Europe. So there is another sustainability solution that we are offering.
Apart from developing sustainable materials like polymers, we are also eyeing
ethanol blending as another business stream. Last but not the least, we are
also betting big on turbocharging solutions. In a country where 80pc of the
crude oil is imported and where fuel efficiency is becoming a burning issue, we
see increasing number of vehicles being turbocharged. A turbocharger not only
enhances the fuel efficiency of the engine but also ensures that it complies
with stringent emission norms. A turbocharged vehicle is also able to withstand
higher temperature and higher pressure. And a turbocharging hose (that we make)
is a very critical component in the entire process. If you look at
turbocharging hose as a product, most of the materials are developed by us. We
use our advanced elastometers, aramid fibres, and also PTFE
(polytetrafluoroethylene) i.e. Teflon and all put together we are able to make
a turbocharging hose and meet two key things i.e. better fuel efficiency and
stringent emission norms.