Davos 2023| Ready to scale up with India, if 6-7% growth rate maintained, says Honeywell COO Vimal Kapur

"If India maintains its growth rate of 6-7%, companies like us should grow 15 percent range and we have done that. There was a time we did that 2010-11-12 timeframe; we had that very high growth rate. So we are used to having a double-digit growth rate for several years in India and we know how to do it. So I think we are ready to scale with the country," he said.

On the company's prospects in the 2023 fiscal, Kapur said, "So the sectors we are in, I think they are going to have a not bad 2023 because we are big in aerospace. So as people are traveling more, there's a lot of pent up demand in travel. China should soon open up for international travels. So we expect a good performance in our aero-business. In our energy business, we see a lot of investment by our customers in energy transition. So that's keeping that sector alive."

"(In) The businesses which are closer to the consumer supply chain, there is obviously pressure of the economic trends right now. So on the whole, I always compared 2022 which was a tough year. Ukraine war supply chain issues, high inflation, (etc.) So carrying that forward to 2023, we don't think it's going to be too different. It's going to be a different sort of issues to deal with, but on balance, it should be carried forward and then we had a good 2022 from a performance standpoint," he said.

Kapur said, "I think where we see the most pressure is Europe where we are. We constantly see order rates dropping which was not surprising. I think most people predicted that across most verticals. In the US, in spite of people saying recession is coming, it's holding pretty well. There is no change in the business dimensions as of now because it depends on where you are. But as interest rates keep going up, there's more and more anticipation on reduced production consumption and eventually some slowdown will occur. But so far it has been holding well."

"China had a top 2022 due to Covid related issue. We all are expecting that second half of 2023 will be strong in China after they overcome the COVID issues. I think 2022 was outstanding in India in terms of growth rates. Everybody continues to forecast India to be stronger, you know, 6 percent or so for next year, the next couple of years. So I think they are the bright spots."