Somany Ceramics Ltd. (India) installs its first complete line with SACMI Continua+ technology. This latest order draws on SACMI’s expertise and experience on the dynamic Indian market. Start-up is expected to be completed by the summer and the company has its sights set on further domestic & export-driven growth and expansion on the high end of the market.
India’s second-biggest player and the world’s 16th largest in terms of access to capacity (over 74 million square meters), Somany Ceramics has big ambitions for the manufacture of large, high-end slabs.
A brand new SACMI line, made up of high-speed PCR2000s, a 58.8-meter ECP285 horizontal dryer and a 260.4-meter HTE (Hydrogen ready high thermal efficiency) FCC295 kiln, is now on its way to the Gujarat production plant, one of ten located across the country. What’s more, the dryer has been designed to operate on zero fuel thanks to systems that retrieve and recycle heat from the kiln.
The facility housing the new SACMI large slab line will be known as Somany Max Pvt. Ltd. , a name that highlights the customer's efforts, in partnership with SACMI, to position itself prominently in the high-added-value segment. Somany's management team, headed by Managing Director and CEO Abhishek Somany, is keen to make it one of the world's leading quality ceramics, a goal that’s being pursued via both higher net access to capacity (which jumped from 63 to 74 million square meters in 2022 alone) and investment in new products, sizes and manufacturing technologies.
More specifically, the Somany Max project draws on SACMI's experience with Continua+ solutions in India (over a dozen have been installed in recent years). These plants have clearly demonstrated an ability to combine high quality and performance with unmatched speed and fuel efficiency, a crucial competitiveness factor on this market. This first investment in Continua+ by Somany thus brings the benefits of that experience and further strengthens the long-standing alliance between Somany and SACMI.
Another pivotal element of the customer’s strategy is steady growth within Indian and overseas markets, built on quality, reliability, product innovation, and brand strength/recognition. That goal is now within reach thanks to the latest products that will be leaving the Somany Max factory by the end of the summer, from the 80x160 and 80x240 slabs to the large, thick worktops measuring 80x320 cm, with productivity expected to be around 4 million square meters per year.