How do you look at the current market scenario of formworks in India?

Indian industries in general are coming to terms with the effects of lockdown and disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic. The construction industry too is facing its share of challenges. The scaffolding and formworks market in India is of course, dependent on the way construction industry handles the challenges.

In pre-Covid times, the size of the system formwork business was only 10-15 percent of construction but now we know that getting skilled worker is a real issue. We also think that market will ask for more system formworks as what we have not done in last year and half of this year’s work, will have to catch up for most projects. There will be need of system formworks and formworks which will help reduce manpower and it will be a set towards industrialisation of construction. We feel that we will have a lot of opportunities for System Formworks and it will be great help to construction industry.

What are the new developments and technology trending in the market?

The market is trending towards wall forms, slab forms and aluminium forms. Now the market is also checking tunnel formworks. At Outinord, we have always believed in and propagated ‘Industrialisation of Construction’. Our various offerings fit in perfectly with the current demand for technology to alleviate the situation. All our system formwork solutions like, tunnel forms, wall forms, adjustable column forms and table forms are designed to give a ‘Daily Cycle’ of operation and it can be adapted to suit customer’s project timeline requirement.

How is the adoption of new materials and technologies picking up?

The industry is definitely warming up to new technology-driven solutions to address these concerns. The acceptability is still slow at this point in time though. There is resistance, more from the smaller contractors and developers to adapt to the newer technologies and solutions. The established players, though are more forthcoming and ready to explore and will be better placed to enjoy the benefits too.

Government of India is also playing a major role in this regard by introducing initiatives like GHTC-India under the Housing and Urban Development Ministry. Outinord is executing a project along with partner under the Light House project at Rajkot, being promoted by BMTPC.

What are the key challenges faced by formwork players?

The biggest challenge is about acceptance of new technology driven solutions, especially for the smaller players. They want to continue with the established way of working as capital is an issue for all Contractors and so most important part for all is capex and investment in technology as well as all other equipment to support for that solution. Industrialization always requires capital infusion and that is the biggest challenge for the contractors. Again, some of the Technologies, although proven in the markets abroad, these are not very well established in India and this creates an element of hesitation in going ahead with the adoption and acceptance of newer technologies.

What is your market outlook for formwork products and solutions?

The future definitely looks bright for System formwork products and technology solutions. As we go forward, the dependency on the availability and skill set of labour is going to be more and more challenging. This will make more and more industry players to go towards technology-driven solutions.

Again, we have always talked about offering our technical solutions to address customer’s needs. The biggest need going forward is the same. Outinord has always strived to offer a safe, dependable, time sensitive technology solutions for construction. To promote the acceptability of our technical solutions, we are offering our wall forms, table forms and adjustable column forms on a rental basis. This step on our part and ease of capital investment will enable them to use our formworks and benefit from system formworks use.