After making high-quality wheel loaders and motor graders last year, LiuGong has launched larger excavators and compactors in International Mining & Machinery Exhibition (IMME) 2018 in addition to wheel loaders, among other products for various segments. The company, that previously provided only loaders, can now also cater to more solutions to customers, according to Nischal Mehrotra, Director- Sales and Marketing, LiuGong India Pvt Ltd in a media interaction.

What differentiates LiuGong?
The LiuGong brand is now in top 50 countries worldwide and it is imperative to have presence in India since it is the future. We deliver Indian features here. We must understand what the business is and who the customers are as they can also have their customers. So, we need to understand what they need and contribute accordingly.

Our 5-tonne loaders are fuel efficient and that is also our way to address the concern of fuel consumption which will lead to saving of 15 per cent. We never let our customers down. Customers are most important and we believe in keeping their trust when they choose us. In India, it is important to have a network through native, connections, dealers, etc. so that way, LiuGong dealer network is much stabilised. That’s the kind of trust that has really become network, so now all of the machines go in different states and customers can be productive everywhere.

We have already cracked a lot of mining customers but only with wheel loaders. We have the experience to handle all mining contractors and want to give complete solution to the customer, which is why we have launched new mining solutions.

What is the capacity of wheel loaders for mining?
Earlier, we were giving wheel loaders for coal applications with surface miner. Now, the contract period is reduced and customers want to shift to bigger machine for which our 7-tonne class of pay load capacity for wheel loaders has come in.

How do you rate your success in terms of product launches, network expansion, etc?
Now customers rate LiuGong as an Indian company as 95 per cent phases are Indians only. That’s why customers trust us which gives an opportunity to introduce more products. LiuGong has 17 different line of products. Recently, we got a big order from the Dilip Buildcon for India’s biggest cable bridge in Goa which will be executed by LiuGong component. We also support ‘Make in India’ that’s why customers have more trust on us.

On global scale, where does India stand? What kind of growth are you looking at?
Since this year, the turnover, the business from India is the largest and the overseas business here is the biggest. In the last several years, growth has been increasing and we have a lot to do in future.

What kind of investment do you see coming to India?
Definitely, every year we are investing huge amount of money and the next bigger investment will be coming soon because more product lines are coming. We are not just doing business for business; what do today, tomorrow goes to the future. Now, accordingly the business is growing; excavator and more products are coming. Starting from ‘Make in India’ is tough as you need to have patience and confidence that the initiative is the future. This is also the major reason for the difference with other Chinese companies. If you don’t have patience, you don’t have time to continue to invest. This is not easy, but according to our experiences, this is must and is also quite possible.

Starting from ‘Make in India’ is tough as you need to have patience and confidence that the initiative is the future.
Nischal Mehrotra, Director- Sales and Marketing, LiuGong India Pvt Ltd