Bharat Earth-movers Ltd (BEML) has opened a full-fledged office in Shanghai, China to source components for its mining, metro rail and defence products. The company also plans to enter the Indonesian and Australian markets in a big way.

BEML, which sees railways as its main engine of growth, will also market its products in China through this office. ''With this office, BEML expects to earn a business turnover of Rs300 crore in 2-3 years,'' said BEML chairman and managing director V R S Natarajan.

"In addition to Brazil, Malaysia and Shanghai, we have plans to look at Indonesia and Australia," Natarajan told reporters in Shanghai. 

BEML proposes to open a marketing office and repair shop in Indonesia that "if everything goes well, could become an assembly shop," said Natarajan.

He said the company had sent a 100-tonne dumper to a customer in Australia on a trial basis and if it succeeds, "we will roll out equipment there also. Once the equipment population goes beyond 10, 20, 50...then naturally, we have to have our own set up to address the service needs as well as supply spare parts," he said.

BEML will be sourcing critical components and machinery parts required for the manufacturing of its mining and construction equipment as also for the manufacture of wagons and rail coaches.

BEML would, however, ensure the components sourced from China meet the required technical and quality parameters with comparatively lower costs, he said.

The Indian Railways is going in for big diversification and modernisation of its fleet during the 11th five-year plan and beyond. The Railways is also planning additional seat capacity and BEML hopes to seize that opportunity. The company already has orders worth Rs100 crore in hand for the current year.

The Railways has also decided to replace the existing fleet of EMU cars running in Chennai and Mumbai with stainless steel cars, as the high corrosion rate spoils them with cities being in seashore.

He also said, with railways pushing for high-speed corridor, BEML had tied up with National Aluminum Company (NALCO) to develop, for the first time in India, 100 tonne aluminum wagons with four axles of 25 tonne each.

BEML, Natarajan said, was also expanding its product range in defence, including those relating to tanks, entire bridge family, heavy duty equipment support for launchers and wagons related to transportation of tanks and ammunition.