The exhibition provides an exceptional platform for participants to leverage the opportunities in the Construction Equipment industry in India.

what is your expectation from the EXCON ’19?
Excon is the premier construction equipment and technology trade fair and conference, which has both national and international presence. The exhibition provides an exceptional platform for participants to leverage the opportunities in the Construction Equipment industry in India. Excon has emerged as a mega business event, attracting stakeholders with its sheer size and the range of products showcased. Excon 2019 is set to build further in scale and stature and put India’s CE industry, on the global map.

What are the new product launches you have planned for Excon 19?
At Excon, the new products we will be exhibiting are—EX 215LC-SLR: a super long reach machine for long-reach applications, and 20 T quarry variant excavator for quarry specific applications. We will also be displaying our range of hydraulic excavators (both in the economy and the premium segment), our all-new Backhoe Loader, SHINRAI and the indigenized wheel loader TL340H. Apart from this, there will be a display of our attachments and spare parts.

How do you respond to the market, what are the USP of your products that allows you to stand tall?
Our comprehensive range of Excavators include 2T to 40T hydraulic excavators for the Infrastructure sector, 45 to 120 tons for the mining sector and the ultra-large 190 to 800-ton excavators for specialised heavy-duty mining. These products, amongst others, are a part of our latest EX super+ series and the technologically advanced ZAXIS GI series. We also have a range of wheeled products – the fuel-efficient Wheel Loader and the recently launched all-new Backhoe Loader – Tata Hitachi Shinrai.
We understand that today, our customers realize that they need to be extremely competitive in the marketplace – and to be competitive, they need to reduce operating costs and improve efficiencies.

Keeping this in mind we have developed a two-pronged product strategy – one addressing the value segment and the other the premium segment.

The value segment:
The EX Super+ Series excavators – combining advanced technology and low running costs – to enable a high return on investment. The superior design of products in this series ensures ease in serviceability leading to a lesser downtime for maintenance. This series comes with our telematics solution – InSite – that gives detailed data on the performance of the equipment at job sites. The Super+ series of hydraulic excavators work in a wide variety of applications in various geographies across India commanding best in class resale value.

For the premium segment:
Our offering is the ZAXIS GI series of machines – fitted with industry-leading hydraulic technology to ensure unbeatable performance, high fuel efficiency and high durability. These excavators provide impressive fuel economy, swift front movements and are easy to operate with industry-leading cabin for operator comfort. Another highlight of this series is the optimized hydraulic system and the improved engine which showcases Hitachi’s technological prowess and expertise. Powered by ConSite: a next-generation service solution that utilizes Information Communication Technology (ICT), to deliver monthly reports to customers.

Looking at the market opportunities, what are your focus areas?
The construction industry is modernizing & mechanizing at a fast pace by adopting newer construction technologies as also due to shortage of trained manpower, driven by the tighter deadlines to complete the projects & to keep the construction cost lower.

Given this background, the requirement of the customers on construction equipment manufacturers have also been changing to keep up with the need.

The requirements are clustered around:

• Lower cost of operation
• Information status of CE
• Training of manpower
• Customization & flexibility for different applications

At Tata Hitachi, our ‘customer-centric‘ focus has led us to address the above requirements. We brought in the ZAXIS GI series of excavators capable of delivering high performance, comfort and aesthetics for the operator with cutting edge technologies of a fuel-efficient Isuzu engine, HIOS hydraulics & CONSITE platform with telematics from Hitachi and adapted to tough Indian operating conditions.

Similarly, our EX Super+ series of excavators offers a low cost of operation for the retail customers, hirers & first-time buyers with fuel-saving features & ease of maintenance.

Telematics has also been offered under ‘Insite’ to make all the important machine-related information to the customer.

We are running operator training schools in Dharwad & Kharagpur accredited by Infrastructure Equipment Skill Council (IESC) to make available trained operators to the customers.

As far as the introduction of customized machines & attachments go, we have been a leader in this area and have been one of the first to offer shovel version on our 10T & 20T excavators specifically for tunnelling application. We offer a range of rock breakers, quick couplers, grabs, magnet attachment, elevated cab, long reach attachment & drills to address the requirements of our customers.

According to you, did the government policies rejuvenate an ailing market and make way for the construction equipment manufacturers to capitalize?
The government has initiated various steps for accelerating infrastructure development. Investment and implementation of key projects along with corrective measures and industry-friendly policies of the government we believe will greatly help the infrastructure development in our country.

What is your view on the future of the construction equipment market?
This year, there were elections in Q1 that were quite disruptive and there were issues with liquidity majorly NBFC funding. All these led to a contraction of demand in the H1 of the year.

We expect demand to slowly recover in the 2nd half of the year, given the governments focus on infrastructure as well as the various measures taken to improve business sentiment & availability of liquidity.

India’s infrastructure sector is poised to grow significantly with the increasing demand for development of key infrastructure projects such as roads and highways, rural connectivity, urban infrastructure including metro rail projects, ports and airports, industrial corridors, smart city projects, etc.

In terms of growth, we do see that the Mini excavator segment & the mining excavator sector showing significant opportunity in the near term given the increasing mechanization of construction in the country. In case of mining – the sector has performed much below potential in the last few years, however, with the various steps being taken by the government to increase the production of coal & iron ore – it is expected to better.

Hemant Mathur, Assistant Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Private Limited.