“The benefit of shoring system is that it increases the safety at the site and the efficiency of the entire process of piping,” Gaurav Agarwal, CEO – India Operations, SBH Shoring Systems
Many organisations face problems of unstable soil and a lot of water while they excavate. Here comes SBH Shoring Systems whose product increases the safety at the site as well as the efficiency of the entire process of piping. Mr Agarwal shares how their shoring systems are doing this for decades.
Could you brief us about the business and the kind of operations you are having in India?We started our operations in August 2009 to help contracting agencies which faced problem of unstable soil and a lot of water while they excavate. We contacted most of the companies which are into serious piping business. Our business is of shoring and it’s a German product and made of steel. The benefit of the product is that it increases the safety at the site and increases the efficiency of the entire process of piping. We have approached many agencies and within 3-4 months, we had success.
We had clients like SPML, which had a big project in Mumbai near Mira-Bhayander and also Vishwa Infrastructure, which had a problematic project in Odisha. These customers bought for trial and liked it so much that they propagated it to all the municipal corporations. We have some competing technologies like age-old technique of timber shoring, but timber is not safe as much as this shoring system.
If you want 30 metre stretch, you can excavate and shore in a single day. In the same time, if you do it with timber, it takes at least 15 days and huge manpower of around 20 to 25 people. We reduced the time of execution from 15 days to 1 day which is a huge cost itself. If you talk about 200 km of pipeline and have scheduled to do it in 3 years, you won’t be to do it in 3 years. It’ll at least take 6-7 years to complete the stretch. With our product, you complete it at the stipulated time. If you can see the project is stretched from 3 to 7 years, you understand the increase cost of raw materials. Just investing 3-4 per cent of the total project cost to the shoring cost and 50 per cent of the inflation, company can make its workers safe and get work done on time.
Are there any other application areas where you find the opportunities for shoring system?Shoring system can be used at various places; it depends on efficiency. SBH Products have a life repetition of 1,000 uses, SBH Shoring Equipments can definitely be used shoring for foundation work or underground tanks. We are looking for dealers who can provide SBH shoring to local contractors on rent. We manufacture but don’t provide it on rent. It has multiple applications and is very much helpful for underground construction of tanks and foundation.
How is this modern technology catching up in India?SBH Shoring systems is catching up in the market and mostly all reputed engineering contracting agencies and planning to include it in their equipments portfolio.
What are the efforts you realised that you need to take to popularise this modern technology and making it available to every project?To market this product or to propagate, there are various media which we need to use. First, we need to reach out to maximum people and tell them about our products. Second is personal selling; we are approaching several municipal corporations to make them aware about this technology. We are also approaching various contractors as well as getting in touch with companies like L&T because they influence and set the trend in the market. If they try to use this product, it will be spread through the word of mouth. They will also help in taking this product to various parts of India. We are also looking for dealers because we feel that once we have the dealership network, we will be able to get the required penetration.
You are talking about the cost difference for timber shoring so what can be the percentage of escalation when you use this technology?If you buy timber shoring for 30-metre stretch which is 6.2 metres in depth, it will cost you around Rs. 4-5 lakh. That shoring you cannot use more than 10 times so the cost of per use will be around Rs. 40,000. If you use SBH shoring for 30-metre stretch which is 6.2 metres in depth, it’ll cost you around 1.7 crore, but that shoring can be used at least 1,000 times. If you talk about 400 times, still it is not more than Rs. 20,000. Even you are capitalising the actual life of the product, you are able to reduce 50 per cent of the cost. It’s also faster and safer than timber shoring, and there is one more advantage: our system is very heavy made of steel and can withstand pressure up to 85.5 kn/square metre.
Anything else you would like to share with our readers?I just want to inform the contracting agencies who are into business of underground pipelaying to try this equipment. We have 3-month trial period in which companies can try the equipment. Companies require less manpower for this equipment instead of having 25-30 people, they just require 5 people at the site.
In India we have started facing scarcity of skilled labour, so contractors should try this equipment and see how efficient it is. We have interest-free finance scheme for 3 years; one just needs to give us a letter of credit for 3 years, and we will take out the interest part.
Now construction industry is picking up and new projects are coming, giving hopes to us. We have huge market lying for us. SBH Teifbautechnik GmbH is a 25-year old company and this technology is not new to the world. The shoring system has been used in Europe for the past 40 years., and it is time that India should adapt these modern technologies to achieve the development targets on time.