Continuous product support, continuous product improvement and product upgradation based on market requirements are the three strategies to consolidate our position in the industry.

G. Ravichandar, Executive Director (Marketing), BEML Limited

What is your take on the construction and mining equipment industry in India?
There is a huge potential for growth in road projects. So the year 2017-18 is promising for construction equipment industry. The Govt of India’s thrust on infrastructure related capex spending is highly promising for requirement of construction and mining equipment.

Being a PSU, how do you deal with the competition from MNCs?
BEML is pioneer company in India engaged in manufacturing and supplying of construction and mining equipment to core sectors of economy since five decades and 80 per cent of orders are obtained through competition mostly with MNCs over the years. The company has established itself and earned trust among major customer base in the country through our well-established R&D. Our county-wide after-sales service network support and continuous product improvement vis-à-vis customer requirement is an important factor to deal with competition especially from MNCs.

What are your strategies to consolidate position in construction and mining equipment industry?
Continuous product support, continuous product improvement and product upgradation based on market requirements are the three strategies to consolidate our position in the industry.

BEML is all set to get in to underground mining equipment manufacturing. Your comments.
BEML is already manufacturing and supplying underground mining equipment such as side discharge loaders, load haul dumpers, battery operated locos, granby cars and diesel mine cruisers to coal subsidiaries. As per market requirement, priority to BEML is open cast mining.

From open cast mining to underground mining. How do you look at this shift?
As I said earlier, BEML is in both opencast and underground mining equipment manufacturing business. The shift is likely to be slow and opencast mining is already highly mechanised and productive.

What can be expected from BEML’s construction and mining equipment business in 2018?
BEML is confident of supporting economy by introducing new products under “Make in India” policy, with its past experience and expertise and in-house R&D strength, which will definitely make us self reliant and save foreign exchange. In higher capacity mining equipment, we have introduced 150-tonne class (BH150E) and 190-205-tonne (BH205E) class Electric Dumpers and 180-tonne class (BE1800E/D) Hydraulic Excavator (electric and diesel versions). Similarly in construction equipment, 107 HP dozer with hydrostatic transmission (BD50HST) and 180 HP dozer with power angle tilt feature (BD65-1PAT) have been introduced and a Wheel Loader (BL30) with pay load capacity of 5-tonne is being planned during EXCON 2017.