From Left: Kalyan Kumar Paul, President, Tube Products of India, MM Murugappan, Vice Chairman, Murugappa Group and L. Ramkumar, MD, TII

Tube Investments of India (TII), part of the Rs. 24,300-crore Murugappa Group, has announced that the large diameter tubes manufacturing plant at Tiruttani was formally inaugurated on October 30. The plant has been built with a capital expenditure of Rs250 crore and with an installed capacity of 11,000 tonnes per month. It will address the requirements of the infrastructure sector comprising hydraulic cylinders, propeller shafts and other large-diameter tube applications that are currently being served through imports.

TII Managing Director, L. Ramkumar, said that with the operation of this state-of-the-art plant, it would be able to serve the needs of the off-road vehicle and construction industries.

The large diameter tube plant has been set up with the approval under the Single Window Clearance system of the Tamil Nadu Government. It has been designed as a world-class layout with a streamlined process flow. Built over 63 acres of land outside Tiruttani town, the highly-automated plant has machines imported from Germany, Italy and Japan.

The product range encompasses a wide variety of cold-drawn welded (CDW) and electric resistance welding (ERW) tubes with a diameter range of 60 mm to 180 mm and thickness from 4 mm to 12.7 mm. The products will address applications such as hydraulic cylinders used for earthmoving and construction machinery, propeller shafts for high payload vehicles and rear axle tubes for utility vehicles, structural applications (for airports, stadia, industrial sheds and other large buildings / public utilities), automotive chassis applications, etc.