Siemens bets on the building automation market in India

Siemens Building Technologies Ltd (SBT) is betting big on the building automation, energy efficiency, and fire and safety solutions market in India, estimated at Rs 2,000 crore. The company is setting up a "first-of-its-kind" Graphics and Engineering Centre of Competence (GECC) for the Asia Pacific region in India to pursue business opportunities in the building automation segment, said Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO, building automation, Siemens.

The company, incidentally, invested over $200 million into its India RandD centre during the previous year. It sees India as the major market for its building technologies business arm in the years to come, said Schierenbeck, during a press conference here on Tuesday.

The GECC, being set up in Chennai, will provide engineering design services for the Indian market as well as the Asia Pacific region, and thus serve as a key contributor in Siemens' global value chain, he noted. Siemens has its main GECC centre in Europe.

SBT, which has got orders from seven Indian airports to provide building automation and energy efficinecy solutions, is looking at the oil and gas, pharmaceutical, healthcare, green buildings and hotels sector for its SBT business. Apart from engineering design, software configuration and graphics development services, the new centre will enable Siemens to improve the quality and speed of delivery of their building technology solutions, opined Schierenbeck.

Anand Mecheri, CEO and managing director, SBT, said, "The Indian fire safety, security and building automation market is estimated at Rs 2,000 crore (excluding old buildings) and is set to grow manifold with the advent of new hotels, IT and ITeS and green buildings. Given our expertise and experience, coupled with our innovative product solutions, we see huge opportunities for our SBT business in the years to come," he added.

According to him, the GECC will initially have 30 people, which will be scaled up to 100 over a period of time.

Siemens, which has a manufacturing facility for control equipment at Puducherry, will help in sourcing required products, he said. Currently SBT's turnover is estimated at around Rs 325 crore, including business worth Rs 100 crore from its manufacturing unit, said Mecheri.