The first step into Asia

In 1959, KSB established its first Asian subsidiary – KSB Pumps Company Ltd. – in Lahore, Pakistan. A joint venture with a Pakistani partner in 1953 marked KSB’s first move into the world’s largest continent. 

KSB and Batala Engineering Co. Ltd. (BECO) each held a fifty percent share in BECO KSB Pump Manufacturing Co. Ltd., which produced various pump models on a modest scale. In 1959, KSB sold its share in the joint venture and founded KSB Pumps Company Ltd., which started life as an autonomous production company on rented premises in Lahore in 1960. In 1964, a newly built factory in Hassanabdal started operations.

At first, KSB’s factory in Pakistan concentrated exclusively on irrigation pumps, producing more than 10,000 at the Hassanabdal facility during the first 25 years of its existence. The factory subsequently expanded its range to include pumps for use in power plants and in the sugar, paper and cotton processing industries. 

In 1979, KSB set up its own foundry in Pakistan in order to meet the quality requirements for cast components. In the same year, the Pakistani parent company KSB Pumps Co. was listed on the Lahore and Karachi stock exchanges, although KSB continued to hold the majority of shares. 

In 1984, KSB Pakistan, which employed almost 500 people at the time, celebrated its silver jubilee. Eight sales offices were responsible for selling pumps and valves in Pakistan. Production at the foundry grew strongly until the 1990s. Only half of the cast components were still needed for the pump factory at Hassanabdal; the other fifty percent had been used in automotive production since 1986. 

In 2018, a fully automated system was installed at the foundry to increase the melting and moulding capacities (see photo).

In 1971, East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh. Following independence, the KSB factory at Tongi near Dacca (now Dhaka), which had produced vertical turbine pumps since 1963, was initially nationalised. The factory was later returned and renamed KSB Bangladesh but the company no longer exists today.