As one of the leading equipment brands in India, Sany is aiming to further improve its position in the Indian construction equipment market.

Sany has made its presence felt in Indian construction equipment market with its quality range of equipment. Be it excavators, cranes, or concrete equipment, Sany has created a niche market in India. In its 15 years of service to Indian market, Sany has become the market leader in crane business. It has consolidated its position in Indian market after its acquisition of Putzmeister. The company has also announced its foray into Indian mining segment with its range of excavators and dump trucks.

The journey
Sany India grew to pan-India levels with its national network in 2005, starting in 2002 with a sales office for concrete and hoisting equipment. In 2006, Sany signed a contract with the Maharashtra Government for an investment of $60 million for its production facility in Chakan, near Pune. Sany?s state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated in 2009. The facility comprises its head office and manufacturing facility with a global training centre. The head office is supported by five regional offices located at Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi. Sany now has 29 dealers with close to 100 touch points which cater to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Sany India manufacturing plant in Chakan acts as a hub for India and to the countries in African continent, Middle East and South Asia.

The Chakan plant
Sany India opened the new global manufacturing facility and head office in Chakan in 2009 with an initial investment of Rs 650 crore, a step towards the Make-in-India concept. Set up at an area of 80 acres, the plant has an installed production capacity of 3,000 units per year. The facility includes world-class manufacturing setup for excavators, concrete batching plants, spare parts warehouse and a global training centre. ?Sany follows Six Sigma lean manufacturing method in its Chakan facility. This philosophy is reflected when you go around the factory, the assembly line and the spare stocking area,? says Sanjay Saxena, Vice President & Business Head-South Asia, Heavy Equipment & Concrete Business Unit, Sany Heavy Industry India.

Providing a fillip to the Make in India initiative, in 2015-16, Sany started manufacturing of truck cranes (25T, 30T and 40T), transit mixers of 6 and 7 cu m, batching plants of 30 and 60 cu m, and 8T-38T excavator. It is also planning to manufacture truck cranes (up to 75T), wind power turbines, motor graders, tower cranes, and dumpers starting this year. In September 2016, the Chakan plant marked the rollout of 1,000th machine. This marks a historic achievement in Sany India?s growth journey.

Quality: Topmost priority
The company has a strict quality control and quality assurance system through which the components and finished products undergo numerous quality tests. The company also gives special emphasis to research and development which helps in improving the overall productivity. Dheeraj Panda, Vice President & Business Head - Excavator and Mining, Sany Heavy Industry India says, ?Globally we spend around 5-7 per cent of our overall revenue for R&D, in manufacturing process and component development.?

Training is another important area Sany India is emphasizing on. The world class training facility at Chakan comprises simulators for effective and easy training of its engineering staff and customer?s operators.

Market leadership
Sany is leader in truck-mounted cranes and piling rigs, while Number 2 in crawler cranes and reach stackers. In the long reach excavator segment, Sany is a leader with 52 per cent market share. Maharashtra is the prime market for LR segment of excavators in Western India and Sany India commands a healthy 62 per cent market share in the state. This market leadership is being achieved in a short span of last 18 months. LR excavators are primarily used in applications such as well digging, river/canal cleaning and metro construction.

New avenues
Bullish on the infrastructure growth in India, Sany has stepped in to new business avenues such as ports, mining, housing and industrial infrastructure, wind power, etc. In port equipment, Sany has signed a contract with with the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) for design, manufacture and supply of 15 electrically operated rubber tyred gantry cranes (E-RTGCs), marking a new beginning in port equipment segment. The company has also announced its foray into mining as it participated in the recently concluded IMME 2016 in Kolkata showcasing its model SRT55D dump truck. With the launch of the new SRT series off-highway dump truck, Sany India will be offering mining solutions to large surface mining sites for transportation of OB, coal, iron ore, limestone, bauxite and to quarry segment. Another segment Sany will focus in future will be tower cranes. The company is planning to introduce tower cranes from January 2017.

Looking forward
With road construction on a momentous growth, Sany India is planning to introduce equipment such as motor graders and pavers to cash in the emerging opportunities. Says Saxena, ?We have presence in Indian road construction market as there are close to 200 motor graders working in India. Now we are introducing new series of motor graders in India to cater road construction projects. Excavators are equipment for road construction in which we are already having presence. We also have plans to introduce pavers at a later stage.? Panda observes, ?In the last 8-10 months, major growth drivers of our equipment are irrigation, roads and mining. During this period, the industry has grown by almost 50 per cent compared to the previous year.? Sany has started manufacturing of truck-mounted cranes of 25 tonne, 30 tonne and 40 tonne in its Chakan plant. ?Out of the total crane market, these ranges sold maximum which have now been localised,? informs Saxena. ?As of now, the local content in our machines is around 35-40 per cent. As the numbers grow, we will consider increasing the local content,? he adds.

Panda concludes on a positive note, ?In the last one-and-a-half year, we could better ourselves to 6th from a position of 9th. In the next three years, we aim at jumping at least four places up.?