Mr. Soo Kam Tatt - Hypertherm

Mr. Soo Kam Tatt
Director for Asia
Hypertherm

Manufacturers of various cutting technologies are in constant pursuit of producing systems that enhance productivity and cut quality, and the top two thermal cutting choices are plasma and laser. Laser cutting has gained popularity in recent years with customers pursuing higher cut quality, even for thicker materials. With lasers, there was greater exposure to the newer fibre laser systems apart from CO2 lasers. Comparatively, the former is less cumbersome in beam delivery without the mirrors and lenses, and is easier to maintain. But at the same time, plasma remains a popular choice because of its versatility, in terms of the materials and range of thicknesses that it can handle.

The metal cutting industry will continue to be dominated by these two cutting technologies, at least in the foreseeable future. But the question of how much market share laser and plasma will take from each other remains. There will no doubt be advances in both technologies over the years, so the competition will continue to be based on needs versus capital cost. As laser becomes more widely accepted, economies of scale will drive production costs down, so that gap between the initial capital costs of laser and plasma will be narrowed. And when buyers' thresholds are reached, it is likely that laser will dominate a larger spectrum of the cutting market than they do today.

I think what's notable is the growth that we have seen in China. The shipbuilding boom prior to 2008 was a period of large expansion as the country strived to conquer that industry, with sights set on being the top shipbuilding nation in the world. This aspiration set up the rivalry amongst the three largest shipbuilding countries in the world (China, Japan and Korea), and fuelled the development of shipbuilding in other Asian economies as well.

Subsequently, the Chinese government's stimulus for infrastructure development to counter the global crisis raised the demand for construction equipment. This resulted in an expansionary growth in Asia's construction equipment industry, with China leading the pack. Apart from these large movers, growth in other segments of the business in China contributed significantly to the overall growth as well. Amongst them are mining, railways, structural steel, and so on.

The growth in our Indian business across various industries was also significant. Most seemed to be associated with productivity growth, where there is now a drive for businesses to be more efficient, and they have started to adopt higher technology in order to achieve their goals.

In 2012, we will be relocating our office in Shanghai to a larger one in the same city in order to incorporate superior training facilities. This will allow us to better equip our customers with the necessary technical skills for operating our systems. Also, there are plans to expand organisationally in China to cater to the increased demands in the market place. Hypertherm will continue to pursue remote offices to be closer to our customers. Also, later this year or in early 2012, we will be setting up a demonstration and training centre in Delhi. This will allow us to improve our service support to our channel partners by way of training, to improve their technical skills and sales techniques. Organisationally, we will review the need for more support personnel in India as Hypertherm gets more entrenched in the India cutting market.