Coimbatore emerging hotbed for valve manufacturers
Textiles and pumps, the industrial district of Coimbatore is now emerging as a hotbed for valve manufacturers. A number of foreign companies have started their own ventures or have set up joint venture valve manufacturing facilities in the city in the past two or three years, reports Gayathri Gururajan from Coimbatore. The early bird was Dresser Valves India (a subsidiary of the Italian valve manufacturer) that started its operations here in the late 90s to be followed by German Eppinger Tooling, Bonomi Belgium Ventile (that was acquired recently by Sakthi Auto Components) and US–based Cooper Cameron Valves. A recent player to join the bandwagon is Audco India (AIL) — a joint venture of Larsen & Toubro and Flowserve Corporation, USA.Lewis M Kling, president and chief executive officer of Flowserve Corporation, told ET that the company chose Coimbatore because of the concentration of foundry units and better quality of castings available here.