ElectroMech’s expertise in material handling together with Zoomlion’s proven-efficiency in tower cranes is creating a win-win situation for the high-rise building construction in India. On the sidelines of bC India, Tushar Mehendale speaks to Subhajit Roy and discusses on this synergy. Excerpts:

There are lots of talks about ‘Acche Din’. How do you look at the real scenario?
It is clear that the intent of government is much about increasing business. By the time we start noticing the benefits of it at the ground level, it might take a few more months. We had been cruising through a very bad phase for past three years as the downfall had started in 2010-2011. So people are obviously expecting things to happen very fast. Keeping in mind the way the country was running for past 10 years, things cannot be changed overnight. However, when it comes to visibility of the things on the ground, whatever is visible is the euphoria. The sentiments are looking good as stock markets have gone up. To keep momentum going on, the government needs to go on.

Now the government is promoting ‘Make in India’ whereas RBI Director is advocating ‘Make for India’…
It is just the playing with words. People should not get carried away in ‘Make in India’ or ‘Make for India’. In fact, ‘Make in India’ is there for years because the multinational companies have been coming and manufacturing in India. For example, many of the automobile companies have come and set up their plants in India earlier. They are manufacturing in India and exporting to the rest of the world. There are many capital goods and power equipment companies as well. Thus things have already been happening here. It is just a rebranding exercise and something to spur the industry. Because previous government was only into the talking business and this government is taking some steps proactively in addition to it. As it is putting the efforts into the positive manner to spur the people, to move on and do something, the picture looks good today. 

However, one should not be so sceptical at the same time. We have become sceptical from the past experience; but we should keep some slag for the new government and hope that it will do something. 

How is your JV with Zoomlion doing?
The JV is doing good; we have got a new fraction in market. People have recognised Zoomlion tower cranes as superior products. In fact, Zoomlion today is the leading manufacturer of tower cranes with one of the biggest range available. It has played significant role in building the infrastructure of China which is renowned for the scale of projects and timeliness with a squeezed timeline.

In India the size of infrastructure is small compared to international standards. If we want to make India a developed country, the size of the infrastructure has to be implemented and the required timeline should be framed. Zoomlion’s experience in China will help a lot when it comes to our offerings to the Indian customers.

ElectroMech is experienced in material handling and Zoomlion is dealing in tower cranes. Where is the synergy?
Synergy is in both – in cranes as well as in material handling. Our major customers are from infrastructure industry. So we have got overlap on the customer side. Also when it comes to the product side there is much overlap on the way the product is manufactured. All structural fabrication, electrical sections and metallic components are even similar. As there is a huge amount of synergy in both, more or less the product category remains the same.

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Key attraction at bC India
At bC India, Zoomlion-ElectroMech displayed the Zoomlion TC 5013-5, an India-specific external climbing hammer head tower crane. Designed specifically for high-rise construction projects, the crane has a 50-metre jib with a 1.3-tonne tip load. The maximum lifting capacity of the crane is 5 tonnes.