CHARLOTTE, N.C. (2 October 2014)—SPX Corporation announced that it has been awarded a contract worth more than $10 million from a leading global producer of infant formula to expand its drying plant in India.
Under the terms of the contract, SPX will provide an infant formula spray drying system featuring an array of homogenizers, heat exchangers, pumps, valves, atomizers and air filtration equipment from SPX. The plant is expected to produce a variety of dairy-based infant food products.
"An expanding population and middle class in India and other emerging markets is helping to drive growth in the multibillion-dollar global baby food market," said Marc Michael, president, SPX Food and Beverage. "We look forward to applying our deep expertise in infant formula processing to help our customer expand its production capacity and enable them to help meet India's growing demand for safe, nutritious infant formula."
The SPX spray drying system will utilize its Triple-A spray dryer, recommended for agglomerated powders that are easy to disperse and dissolve. Powder manufacturers are facing increasingly rigid quality demands requiring full control over powder structures and functional properties. SPX's Triple-A spray dryers are customizable to ensure consistent end-product quality, while also providing complete control over a plant's production run-time, yield, and operating costs.
The core SPX technology and control system will be designed and managed from SPX's global design center in Denmark. All other mechanical and electrical installations will be managed by SPX's local team in India to help ensure that the project complies with all local standards and is completed on time.
"SPX is well positioned to execute this project by leveraging the resources of our global food and beverage processing network along with the local market expertise of our team on the ground in India," added Michael.
India is the fastest-growing infant nutrition market in the world, with approximately 25 million babies born in the country each year. According to published reports, India's baby food market is expected to rise from its current value of US$400 million to an estimated US$700 million by 2015.
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, SPX Corporation is a global multi-industry manufacturing leader with approximately US$5 billion in annual revenue, operations in more than 35 countries and over 14,000 employees.