Parth Equipment is an engineering group run by technology enthusiasts. The company is investing in research and development with a single goal to do something new and better. In an exclusive interview with Tube & Pipe India, Mr. Arth Shah, Executive Director, Parth Equipment Limited, reveals that the company aims to enhance its manufacturing capability to produce 100 machines per year by FY26. The company also wants to develop the Direct Forming Technology (DFT) mill to produce square and rectangular tubes directly without tool change, and is planning to develop pilger mills for the seamless tube industry.
Tube & Pipe India: Please elaborate on the journey, crucial milestones and success story of your company.
Arth Shah: Our journey began in 1988 with a small workshop in Ahmedabad, which was manufacturing components for the tube industries. Under the leadership of Mr. N T Shah, a technocrat with a Master’s degree from IIT Bombay, our organization went on to become a market leader in supplying tube mills and plants for the production of ferrous and non-ferrous tubes.
We received the opportunity to supply our first tube mill for manufacturing stainless steel tubes in 1991. Owing to the sturdy design and superior build quality, Parth Equipment continued receiving opportunities to add various machineries and new tube sizes to its product basket over the journey of 35 years.
At present, our product portfolio consists of 75+ models in 15+ product categories. Our genuine commitment to the most stringent quality levels, utmost care for specific customer requirements, and excellent after-sales support have been our tools to success. Over the years, we have increased our production capacity. At present, our production infrastructure consists of 4 manufacturing plants, 80+ machine tools, and 250+ manpower. We are in process to further enhance our manufacturing capabilities to produce 100 machines per year by FY26.
TPI: Please share with us your offerings and portfolio for the production of tubes and pipes.
AS: We are one of the few manufacturers to supply a complete range of equipment for the tube and pipe industry. Our diverse product portfolio consists of machineries required for stainless steel tubes, carbon steel tubes, and non-ferrous steel tube plants. We supply equipment for both the welded and seamless tube industry. This approach helps mitigate risks and enable us to perform well even in challenging situations.
We offer tube mills for stainless steel and carbon steel tubes upto 10” NB, tube straightening machine upto 10” NB, tube draw bench upto 150 MT pull capacity, round and square pipe polishing machine, hydro testing machine upto 10” NB, flying coldsaw cutoff machine, coil slitting line, pilger mill dies and mandrels, tube swaging machine, and tube-end chamfering machine.
‘‘The rising export of Indian tubes in the European and American markets and declining imports from China will increase the requirement for ‘Made-in-India’ tubes and pipes.’’
TPI: Brief us about your manufacturing locations and manufacturing capacities for technologies related to the tubes & pipes industry.
AS: Parth Equipment is located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the growth engine of India. Our headquarters, machine shops, roll manufacturing facility, fabrication shop, and assembly workshops are situated over an area of 1,00,000+ square feet in the industrial epicenter of the city, making it the one of the largest facilities in India among this industry.
We have a brilliant workforce, comprising of engineers, technologists, machine operators, quality inspectors, sales and marketing professionals, and others.
Our machine shops consist of CNC turning centres, vertical machining centres, CNC plasma cutting machine, heat treatment furnace, surface grinding machines, bore grinding machines, CNC cylindrical grinding machine and many more conventional machine tools, making it one of the most advanced machine shops.
We are using state-of-the-art CAD-CAM software to program the CNC machines to produce complex geometries. We have installed solar power plants at our factory to reduce carbon footprint and promote sustainable development.
The production planning and inventory management of our 30,000+ SKUs is controlled by the ERP software.
TPI: Tell us about your vast clientele in India and globally, catering to the tubes & pipes sector. Tell us about your market footprint.
AS: We have supplied 1500+ production plants to our valued customers across India as well as abroad, including the USA, Middle East, and Africa. Many of our customers have started their industrial journey with our machines, kept on expanding by giving repeat orders, and are now one of the prominent tube manufacturers worldwide.
Our well-diversified product basket helped us with a good market penetration across the tube industry. We have supplied machines for stainless steel tube manufacturers like Ratnamani Metals and Tubes, Venus Pipes and Tubes, Jindal SAW, Maxim Tubes, Viraj Profiles, Sunmark Stainless, Inoxium Tubi, etc. We provide high-frequency stainless steel tube mills to Ravi Seamless, Arnay Tubes, ASB Tubes etc.
Our customers in carbon steel tubes include BHEL, Goodluck Industries, Avon Tubetech, Tata Steel, Rashmi Group, Meta Engitech, Ottoman Industries, Lalbaba Seamless, and many more. We have also supplied plants for copper, brass, and aluminium tubes to various customers like Mehta Tubes, Indian Copper, Multi Metal, Siddhi Group, etc. We have also supplied customized colour coating and galvanizing lines to our customer Tenova Group, exporting it to Europe and South-East Asia.
‘‘We are one of the few manufacturers to supply a complete range of equipment for the tube and pipe industry. Our diverse product portfolio consists of machineries required for stainless steel tubes, carbon steel tubes, and non-ferrous steel tube plants.’’
TPI: What developments and innovations are you inheriting in your plants and technology for the tubes and pipes industry?
AS: We focus on value addition through high-end engineering. We are a group run by technology enthusiasts with all three directors having master’s degrees in mechanical system design from different IITs. With a strong backbone of industrial setup and a quality-conscious mindset, we thrive to succeed in the new atmosphere, set out with a single goal to do something new and better by investing in research and development. We are continuously adding new automation features to our machines to increase productivity and reduce manpower. We have made significant improvements in our machines to make it compatible with Industry 4.0 and SCADA, which can generate production reports and monitor OEE autonomously.
TPI: How do you foresee the future of the tubes & pipes industry? What according to you are the factors which are expected to fuel the growth of this sector?
AS: Over the past decade, the tube and pipe industry has experienced remarkable growth. Today, steel pipes have become essential across numerous sectors, including construction, modern infrastructure, agriculture, furniture, automotive, oil and gas, and many other sectors. The potential of steel-based products is limitless, making steel a cornerstone of India’s infrastructure future.
The rising export of Indian tubes in the European and American markets and declining imports from China will increase the requirement for ‘Made-in-India’ tubes and pipes. Further, supportive government policies, such as PLI schemes and infrastructure initiatives, National Steel Policy, and infrastructure spending are directly aiding the growth of domestic manufacturing and exports. Infrastructure, construction, automotive, and renewable energy projects are driving up demand for steel tubes and pipes, particularly in emerging markets like India.
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TPI: What are your future plans?
AS: At present, our production infrastructure consists of 4 manufacturing plants, 80+ machine tools, and 250+ manpower. We are in the process of enhancing the manufacturing capability further to produce 100 machines per year by FY26.
Currently, we have numerous projects under design development. Some of them are push pointers of various capacities, mobile application, which can be used by industry professionals as a pocket calculator for a number of different calculations related to the tube industry, stainless steel tube mill with online bright annealing furnace, and automatic offline tube cutting machines.
In the future, we want to develop the Direct Forming Technology (DFT) mill to produce square and rectangular tubes directly without tool change. We are also planning to develop pilger mills for the seamless tube industry.
‘‘We are using state-of-the-art CAD-CAM software to program the CNC machines to produce complex geometries and have installed solar power plants at our factory to reduce carbon footprint and promote sustainable development.’’
