At TIL, we make safety our priority
Government regulations and policies will have to be much stricter to stop unbridled import of used cranes, says Pinaki Niyogy, Associate Vice President & Head-Manufacturing & Operations, Material Handling Solutions, TIL. In an interview with Equipment India, Pinaki dwells on the market potential for material handling and lifting equipment. Excerpts from the interview.
 
What is the potential of material handling and lifting equipment and also tell us about the range you offer?
The potential for material handling equipment has grown by many folds since the last few years. In case of tyre-mounted mobile cranes, the growth is almost 85 to 90 per cent and in the case of crawler cranes it has more than doubled over 2009. This rapid growth is mainly due to gove?rnment policies encouraging investment in the power and infrastructure sectors.

The rough terrain crane market is shifting towards higher capacities; hence we can see a major part of our sales coming from larger capacity cranes in the coming years. As for the truck crane segment, a better growth is envisaged, the Indian defence sector is planning to spend more money in support equipment, and the oil sector has big expansion plans. A lot of work is planned in the power projects, cement plants, and ship building/ship repairing activities also show potential. With a far more ambitious 12th Five Year Plan, the infra activities are sure to boost the need for mobile cranes. TIL manufactures tyre-mounted hyd?raulic mobile cranes ranging from 12.5T to 75T capacity.

Tell us about the latest models launched recently and their features.
At TIL, we have launched two models in the recent past. The first one is the Hydra 825 MKII truck mounted crane. This is a 25T capacity truck mounted crane, mainly for the rental segment of customers who use this kind of crane for short duration at multiple job sites, and projects that requires the crane to travel on road frequently.

Another product launched by TIL is the model AP415 MKII. This is an industrial crane with 12.5T capacity. Safety being a major issue these days, many of the government as well as private corporate customers are looking for cranes that provide optimum safety features with 9 to 10T capacity pick and carry duty for continuous work at their job sites where safety rules are stringent. The introduction of AP415MKII is aiming to exactly meet such requirements. Test marketing of the product will start soon.

Technology and product-wise, what are the major trends in this segment?
The growth in the truck crane market for capacity beyond 50T is evident. The rough terrain crane is also poised towards higher capacity. Requirement for cranes having capacity beyond 50T and up to 100T is growing steadily in the tyre- moun?ted range of cranes. Of course, green?field projects still prefer to use crawler cranes.

How do you look at the market pote?ntial for truck cranes and truck mounted cranes?
TIL manufactures truck cranes with 25T, 30T, 45T and 75T capacity. We also have 25T truck-mounted cranes. We will go for 30T truck-mounted cranes also in the near future. Application-wise, truck cranes are preferred in the hilly terrains, oil fields and uneven sites. These are used in normal road projects and urban sites.

What are the in-built safety features in the products?
At TIL, we pay very close attention to safety, making it our top priority. Each crane is fitted with safe load indicators (SLI). Anybody trying to lift loads beyond the rated capacity, SLI cuts the system off thus ensuring that no untoward incident takes place.

How do you look at the impact of unbridled import of used cranes?
Government regulations and policies will have to be much stricter to stop such import of used cranes, and more stringent safety rules are called for.