"With this investment the company will become one of the largest tool cutting facilities in Asia," Drillco vice-president, marketing, Thierry Cros said.

The company has introduced three new products at Imtex 2001 exhibition which began on January 15 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The products include a machining navigator providing complete information on tools, Crown Loc to facilitate drilling and a super turbo to increase the speed of metal cutting machines.

During the expo, Indian company Mechelonic tied up with an Italian machine tool manufacturer Germi and a German company Harmst Wende for making welding guns and accessories.

Mechelonic has also been nominated as the sole Indian distributor of Emhart Tucker of Germany for Studd welding equipment, Mechelonic marketing manager Mathew J Nedumkunnel said adding: "We are the first to receive technical aid from Harmst Wende and subsequently financial help too, for manufacturing of this new product. Our aim is to Indianise the product as far as possible."

HMT also used the exhibition to display its new product CNC Automat A16 with guide brush for the first time in India. The machine can improve productivity by 30-40 per cent and reduce cost by 15-20 per cent, a company official said.

Other major launches includes, CNC verticle machining centre by Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd and Batliboi Ltd. Earlier the machine was largely being imported.

Godrej & Boyce, which has exhibited a state-of-the-art injection moulding machine, which reduces running cost by 60-70 per cent.

"Despite the recession in capital goods sector, IMTEX 2001 has shown high degree of enthusiasm," Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association media chairmen Shailesh Sheth said.

He, however, added that recession had little impact on certain segments of the machine tool sector.

"With the overall consumption of machine tools going down, imports are taking a major hit. This year, however, we are optimistic about the growth being 12 to 13 per cent more than last year's," he said.

The focus of Indian machine tools manufacturers is shifting from domestic market to exports, Mr Sheth said.

"Until first half of 90s Indian industries were driven towards domestic market. The emphasis was on import substitution, saving of precious foreign exchange, rather than production of world class products geared to earn foreign exchange. But now focus is shifting to exports market," he said.

"We at IMTA are propagating a clustered approach, whereby few companies can come together to make a common market development effort.