Best year for CE industry

The infrastructure sector in any economy is regarded as the engine of growth, but very importantly of employment. The Indian infrastructure sector is expected to grow with the growth of construction and equipment industry. According to Vipin Sondhi, Chairman, CII EXCON 2017, “The Indian CE industry which peaked in 2011 went through a downcycle for four straight years from 2012 until 2015. This year as an industry, we will surpass our previous best year of 2011 with a growth of 14 per cent. The industry is headed for better days of a projected stable growth of 10 per cent CAGR over the next 5 years compared to 7 per cent in the previous decade.”

Ushers in Smart Technologies

The construction equipment industry is embracing new digital experiences by integrating big data and IoT in its products and services. “Technology is enabling our businesses at an unprecedented rate and every industry is adapting to this change and I can proudly say that we have completely embraced the essence of this transformation. It’s important to be scalable and sustainable in an era of disruptive technology. With the support of central and state governments in irrigation, road construction, etc. and importantly irrigation at the village level, these technologies will play an important role in the overall development and building an infrastructure on time, scalable and sustainable,” said Sondhi.

Telangana, Karnataka call CE companies to invest

Telangana Minister for IT and Industries & Commerce K T Rama Rao called upon construction equipment manufacturers to set up shop facilities in the state. The Minister said, “We welcome those who come and set up manufacturing ancillaries units here. We have moved away from red tape to red carpet to attract our investors in the state.”

He further assured, “As part of the Telangana Government’s industrial policy, the entrepreneurs seeking to set up their manufacturing facilities do not require government permission. If their project is already complete and the land is approved their certification process would only take 15 days.”

Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister R V Deshpande acknowledged that the creation of human resources is the biggest challenge in present day. He urged the infrastructure industry captains to create good jobs. He informs, Karnataka has already created more than 13 lakh jobs by September 2017 and 5 lakh more jobs are in the pipeline. Deshpande also encouraged the industry to invent and invest in Karnataka and promote ease of doing businesses. He said, “Infrastructure is the key for economic, social and human resource development. It’s a key and priority area for the state.”

Infra equipment park to come up in Telangana

Attivo, part of Srei Group, has signed an agreement with the Telangana government for setting up of an industrial park to manufacture infrastructure equipment.

According to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Telangana government and Attivo during EXCON in the presence of Telangana Minister K.T. Rama Rao, Attivo will develop an infrastructure equipment manufacturing park in the National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) near Zaheerabad town in Telangana.

“Spread over 500 acres, the park will create a sustainable and comprehensive industrial zone of international standards. Most of the world’s leading original equipment makers (OEMs) are expected to set up their units in the park, which has a potential to generate more than 10,000 direct and indirect employment over the next 10 years,” an official statement said.

Crane Owner Association signs MoU with IESC for skill development

On the sidelines of EXCON 2017, a MoU was signed between the Crane Owner Association of India (COAOI) and Infrastructure Equipment Skill Council (IESC) with the perspective to empower skill development. As per the MoU signed, COAOI will be responsible for providing labour to the companies that are a part of IESC. Post the training, IESC will provide certificates approved by the Government of India to the employees who have been trained at various companies.

A global platform for component manufacturers

EXCON 2017 witnessed the participation of large number of global and domestic players in the components, accessories and aftermarket segment.

The combined Indian construction equipment market including construction equipment, spares, service and exports stood at $ 5.8 bn in 2016-17 is likely to touch $ 10.5 bn by 2021-22 according to CII-ICEMA Report on Indian Construction Equipment Industry released during CII EXCON 2017.

The overall market for spares for earthmoving equipment in FY 2016-17 was in the range of Rs 4,000 – 4,300 crores. The spares market is expected to go up to Rs 5,800 crores by FY 2022 with the allied services business to be pegged at Rs 800-850 crores giving a huge opportunity for growth of the components industry.

EXCON aims to leverage this gradual shift in the market dynamics by providing an international platform for local component manufacturers to showcase their offering to a global audience.

Big is beautiful

Crushing and screening industry in India is witnessing huge shift towards bigger machines. The major benefit of bigger machines is the operating cost comes down as a bigger machine enables produce more with less number of labours.  V. Senthil Kumar, Managing Director, Propel Industries Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore, observes, “In the crushing and screening, the sizes are becoming bigger as customers are increasing their scale of operation. So, we are seeing a trend towards bigger machines.”

Paradigm shift in acceptance of high-end lubricants

Complete lubrication solutions that include products, technology and services associated with the equipment maintenance are gaining acceptance in Indian market. Shankar Karnik, General Manager Industrial, ExxonMobil Lubricants said, “Even though rupees per litre may seem higher for our solutions, than that of other products, customers are now willing to invest in higher rupee per litre to achieve total cost of ownership benefits.”

Ravi Chawla, Managing Director of Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd said, “We are committed to deliver superior services along with best quality lubricants which have the highest degree of drain intervals.”

Concrete roof tile-making machine enters Indian market

Widely used in European countries, concrete roof tiles offer complete resistance to extreme climates, withstands the ravages of weather and hazards of fire, permanent colour is assured, unique strengthening reduces breakage during handling and transportation, good insulation characteristics and permeability with age. Italy’s Vortex Hydra S.r.l has introduced its concrete roof tile-making machine in India in partnership with Columbia Machine Engineering (I) Pvt Ltd.

“During its entire lifecycle, a concrete roof tile only causes about 45 per cent of the greenhouse gases of that triggered off by a clay tile therefore are environment friendly,” claims Paul Packer, Sales Area Manager, Vortex Hydra.

Focus on truck availability

The truck no more needs to visit a workshop for repairs; it is the workshop that visits the truck! Are you surprised? Today’s truck-makers understand that for customers to become prosperous their trucks need to operate continuously. Eicher Trucks & Buses introduced ‘Think 100% Uptime’ programme for select products in construction segment to deliver customer delight. “Through our unique container site support model and on-site service vans we are taking service to customers door step,” informed Rama Rao A S, Executive Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Eicher Heavy Duty Trucks, VECV.

‘Safest’ Pick-n-Carry Crane is here!

Construction and material handling equipment manufacturer Escorts Construction Equipment (ECE) launched a Pick-n-Carry Crane, CT Smart 15 that has unique anti-toppling and anti-lifting features which provide enhanced safety on the site. “CT Smart 15 has the highest safety on minimum footprint. With auto derating load chart in articulation, the newly launched CT Smart 15 Crane, has unique anti-lifting features that provides enhanced safety on the site,” claims Rajinder Raina, GM – Marketing, Escorts Construction Equipment.

World’s first Backhoe Loader with AMT ‘Made in India’

JCB India has developed ‘world’s first’ Backhoe Loader with Automated Manual Transmission (AMT) called Easy Shift that allows gear shifting to take place with no operator effort through a rotating knob below steering wheel thus, replacing the gear lever. “Easy Shift facilitates ease of operation, a rested operator and also ensures better productivity,” informs Jasmeet Singh, Head – Corporate Communications and External Relations, JCB India.

Grader goes rural

LeeBoy India Construction Equipment has launched two new motor graders in the 18 and 22 tonne categories: LeeBoy 990 (18-tonne, 250 hp) and LeeBoy 995 (22-tonne, 280 hp). However, now the company plans to come out with a smaller grader for rural roads with an 8-foot blade. Apart from supplying this in Indian market, Leeboy sees its huge demand in Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Digitisation taking centre stage

With the evolution of smartphones on the rise, Quest Informatics plans to launch mobile applications for different processes that will enable integrating the business systems with IoT. The company believes that enabling these services would help major manufacturers anticipate the equipment failure well before time, further enhancing the operational efficiency of customers.

Tata Hitachi’s SHINRAI – An engineering masterpiece

The star attraction at Tata Hitachi’s booth was the all new backhoe loader –Tata Hitachi SHINRAI. Designed and manufactured on the key pillars of capability, reliability and trustworthiness, SHINRAI is an engineering masterpiece built in collaboration with Tata Technologies and Hitachi Construction Machinery, Japan. “The all new backhoe loader with its new and advanced features stands true to its name, SHINRAI – a Japanese word that means trust, reliability and confidence,” informs Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi.

Capacity addition on rise

The construction equipment industry is estimated to grow by 10-11 per cent year-on-year in the next few years whereas the concreting equipment segment is likely to grow by 13 to 15 per cent. SCHWING Stetter is one of the leading players in concrete equipment manufacturing. However, the company believes, that current production capacity will not allow them to meet this increase in demand. Therefore, SCHWING Stetter India plans to enhance its production capacity by setting up a greenfield project with an investment of around Rs 140 crores, informs Anand Sundaresan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, SCHWING Stetter India.

Seeing the greater acceptance of aluminium formworks in affordable housing segment, Sharp Ply, with its principles from Ukraine and Germany, is expected come out with the aluminium formwork solutions soon.

Tippers demand likely to go up

The road construction push includes the Bharatmala Pariyojana with a Rs 5.35 lakh crore investment to construct 34,800 km of roads. In addition, Rs 1.57 lakh crore will be spent on the construction of 48,877 km of roads by the state-run National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Requirement of tippers for this industry comes from primarily two applications: Aggregate Mining and Surface Transport. Both these applications will see unprecedented demand in the coming 2 years, observes Dr. A.K. Jindal, Head – Electric Vehicles & Defence Vehicles, Commercial Vehicle Engineering, Tata Motors.