Reconditioning parts and machines of various industries in itself is on a high demand and has its own customer base. This is no menial job, it is as important as what the OEMs and other manufacturers are doing. Gibbs Machinery Company has built an empire in buying, selling, rebuilding, liquidating, and appraising metalworking machine tools since 1946. They are currently North America’s largest inventory of gear machinery and machine tools. In an exclusive interview with Hari Shanker, Managing Editor, Machine Maker Joe Gibbs of Gibbs Machinery Company talks about the used machinery business in India, economic slowdown and their participation in IPTEX-GRINDEX 2020 at Autocluster Chinchwad, Pune.
Gibbs Machinery Company is currently marketing used machines in India and Joe exclaimed that India is a good market and have the advantage of price point and delivery. The company buys used machines and rebuilds them at their facility. Upon interest the customer can inspect their products and once satisfied the machine will be delivered to the customer immediately and Joe stated “delivery is the most significant aspect of our businesses”.
The factory is spread across 56,000 sq. ft and it houses various CNC machines, hydraulic specialist machines and other state of the art equipments; therefore, when the machines arrive they are quickly put on power for various system analyses such as CNC, mechanical, hydraulic, lubrication, etc and all missing components and defects are assembled and rectified respectively, then they are disassembled for shipment.
Discussing the delivery of machines to India, Joe said that they have air-shipped a few machines based on customers’ needs, but a typical shipment on oceans grade would take about 2 weeks to reach the port in the US and then 30 days to reach Mumbai. Gibbs Machinery Company is participating in the IPTEX exhibition and since they are specialists in power-train equipment as well as grinding, shaping and shaving equipments, the company will be offering such products for the visitors. Joe added that they will be displaying some used equipment that are as new as from 2018 and some older equipment that have been reconditioned, which are economical.
The range of machines and equipments that Gibbs Machinery Company specializes in are power-train, gear manufacturing, transmission gearing, axels and other equipments for the rear-end of the vehicle and they specialize in production machining equipments for the front-end of the vehicle as well.
The company also specializes in production machinery of advanced production of blocks, heads, cranks, etc along with power manufacturing line for very large engine blocks, CGI blocks and other parts that are most likely to be found in a heavy truck. Given the fact that India is a price sensitive market, Joe said that their products come with a significant price difference as opposed buying a new machine and added that some of the newer models of machines can be availed at an average discount of 35% and the older models can be availed at much larger discounts.
Having existed in the reconditioning and reselling business since 1946, Gibbs Machinery Company has not only proved that one can establish a successful business in the window of used machinery but has proved the importance of the global market for used machines.
Talking about the Indian market trend for used machines, Joe said that he travelled to various major cities in India such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, Indore, Ludhiana, etc in the last few days and has understood that the market here is not stable and is prone to frequent changes both ways; however, it has not changed in the past few months. Joe added that he hopes the market to remain unchanged for a longer duration. On the other hand, he said selling used machines in the Indian market for the past 20 years has been one of their best exports.
Discussing about the global economic scenario in comparison with the Indian economy, Joe stated ‘Economically, I think India at the moment is a little off due to a lot of significant changes in the structure of the Indian economy with demonitisation and other things, but although the global economy is better the trade war between US and China didn’t help any and unfortunately the Chinese economy has slumped down due to Coronavirus’. However, from a power train standpoint, Joe said that a lot of players from the US and European are able to outsource, which is a good sign.
For more details, visit www.gibbsmachinery.com
