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Vatsal Agarwal talks about infrastructure sector

The Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs, Nitin Gadkari had recently stated that Coronavirus will be no hindrance in highway projects. He believes that this pandemic could be a ‘blessing in disguise’. He has pledged to restart highway construction on a war footing basis. It is implied that to turn the crisis situation, India will need to focus on infrastructure.

In the wake of COVID-19, the migrant labour through his prestigious Highway projects can be gainfully employed.

The Construction Equipment Rental Market size exceeded USD 120 billion in 2019 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 4.5% between 2020 and 2026 as per a Global Market Insights report.

Prior to Covid-19, India’s infrastructure sector was growing at the fastest pace possible. The Government had announced its 5-year vision to become a USD 5 trillion-dollar economy in which infrastructure was to play a great role. India has made an investment of approximately 111 lakh cr in infrastructure sector.

Now, the Director of Simplex Coke & Refractory, Vatsal Agarwal, made the valiant decision and commenced the ‘single largest buying order’ for 15 brand new piling rigs to become India’s largest Piling Rig rental company.

It is the country’s fourth largest merchant manufacturer and trader of met coke in India and currently has a market share of approximately 5% in west and north India.

Says Vatsal, “We are seeing a lot of new enquiries for rental from numerous construction companies, as post Covid-19, the rental industry has seen a massive upraise, as the purchase demand of construction equipment has reduced. Construction companies’ profit increases if they take equipment on rental as machinery part is approx. 21% of any project and cost of project comes down by approx. 10%, as they avoid machine idling cost, maintenance, depreciation etc.”

“Our equipment has RFID and GPS which provides transparency due to real-time equipment data and time logs of the rental”, added the 26-year-old.

Vatsal has recently taken over a BSE listed company, Stratmont Industries Limited.

Apart from it, he has also been involved in most of the metro projects on a national basis for companies like Tata Projects, HCC, Larsen & Toubro, HPCL’s Barmer refinery with Keller India and currently executing Andaman-Nicobar Islands’ National highway project.

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Vatsal Agarwal, Simplex Coke: Vocal-For-Local Will Stop Unfair Chinese Dumping

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “Every citizen of this country has resolved to turn this crisis into an opportunity. We have to make this a major turning point for this nation. What is that turning point? A self-reliant India.” and urged people to go “vocal for local” He went on to say that everything that the country is forced to import should be made in India. How India should become an exporter of the same products in future, and prepare a globally competitive domestic supply chain

China dictates the coke market by either increasing coke price or dumping the coke price to such a level that the Indian government had to impose the anti-dumping duty of USD 25 per ton on imports from China which increases the profit margin of domestic producers like Simplex Coke. India has meagre reserves of coking coal and coke making capacity, so it does not figure in the world rankings. It has earmarked a huge expansion of the steel industry to meet the population base. Existing capacities at various steel plants within India have aged and they need immediate replacement.

Vatsal Agarwaal, founder of Simplex Coke & Refractory, is into met coke which is an essential import substitution product where India is dependent on China. Post Covid-19, PM Narendra Modi has launched the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign, which makes it vital for India to produce coke at increased capacities to be self-reliant.

Vatsal Agarwaal has recently taken over a BSE listed company, Stratmont Industries Limited. He wants to create a cloud based online coal trading marketplace named worldofcoal.com to integrate real time stock positions of various traders at different ports present, directly on the portal screen, such that buyers and sellers are able to match their price expectations as per market conditions.

Simplex Coke is the 4th largest merchant manufacturer and trader of met coke in India and currently has a market share of approximately 5% in west and north India. It has installed stamp charging technology in its port-based plants located in Kutch & Porbandar. From there they intend to do coastal movement of coke to Haldia, Vizag, Chennai, Goa port and have also tied up with 7 coke manufacturers to build a pan India presence. Vatsal Agarwal has grown his company from a humble turnover of Rs.4 crores to Rs.100 crores in a span of barely 4 years with key customers like Tata Chemical, Nirma, Hindustan Zinc, Hindalco, Jindal Saw, Essar, Kirloskar, JSPL, etc.

“As per Steel Policy 2017 India has a target to produce 300 MT of steel by 2030. To achieve this target 30 MT of coke making facilities are required in addition to the existing, envisaged facilities and coke import. Presently India is importing approximately 3 to 4 MT of Coke per year,” said Mr P.K. Rath CMD of RINL.

Simplex Coke also has a piling division which has risen to become India’s largest piling rig rental company, it recently acquired 15 brand new piling rigs and is executing several metro and infrastructure projects as India has a huge infrastructure budget of Rs.111 Lakh crores.

Vatsal Agarwal has recently signed an MOU with the Gujarat government, under ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ to set up new manufacturing as India has a shortfall of coke capacities under the ‘Make in India’ scheme.