Right now we are offering two years of credit terms to our customers. And for the after sales and support the credit facility will be around 30 to 90 days.

 Friends Equipment is one of the key players in the market of crane industry. In an interview with B2B Purchase, Rajeev Kumar, CEO, Friends Equipment shares his views on the industry, the future and the payment concerns.

Contribution to construction industry
Friends Equipment is not a new name in the cranes industry. In the years that followed, the company has made progress with clients in different parts of the globe. When asked about the contribution of Friends Equipment, Rajeev says, “We are in representing China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co. (CRCHI) China, for their entire range of TBM, Zoomlion China for telescopic cranes, rough terrain cranes and crawler cranes, Weichai, China for engines.”

He adds, “Apart from this we are offering the operation and maintenance services for our various clients. We already started the O&M services in Africa as well.”

Why Friends Equipment
Rajeev claims that a customer will get all kind of solutions under one roof at a very competitive price when they approach Friends Equipment. “As our cranes are reliable, we are one of the leading suppliers in the world and product, our products are good in quality and have reasonable pricing with one of the best after sales service network and easy availability of the spare parts at very good pricing,”says Rajeev.
Procurement practices and payment concerns
Speaking about the procurement practices and the payment systems that are followed at Friends Equipment, Rajeev said, “As most of our products are imported and generally we do not provide the direct credits to the customers but yes we do provide the credit facility against the Letter of Credit from the bank. Right now we are offering two years of credit terms to our customers. And for the after sales and support the credit facility will be around 30 to 90 days.”

Innovations in construction industry globally
Rajeev also shared his thoughts about the innovations that are taking place in the construction industry globally. He said, “The market is reacting very low and the demand has been reduced drastically in last one year. But now it seems that the market is coming up and the major focus is now on wind mill sector.” Rajeev credits the new designs of the wind mill towers and specially the increase of the height, that have caused  almost all the OEM to have modified designs of the cranes specially in the segment of 130 tonnes to 650 tonnes cranes model to make it more compatible with the requirement.

Crossing the hurdles
Every industry is having some or the other hurdles. There are issues that raise their head at the last moment and can cause troubles that can make things difficult. Friends Equipment also has faced issues that have even led to breakdowns. In spite of all the problems, they have managed to overcome a lot of troubles. Throwing more light on this, Rajeev expressed, “We have executed couple of projects in last two to three years. Like we were doing operation and maintenance job with Reliance Infrastructure and have completed the six 660 mega watt project at SASAN. We are still working with some prestigious projects of India and are providing our operation and maintenance services.”

In a closing note about the ‘Make in India’, Rajeev said, “This is a very good initiative took by Indian government. We have already signed a contract with China Railway Construction Corporation for their TBM in India and down the line we are planning to have a JV with them for the refurbishment of the TBM in India.”