Battery vehicles are now trending in the market
How do you look at the overall performance of the mining sector in India?
Today India is one of the fastest-growing economies – power consumption and steel are prime indicators of growth, and are having a northward trend hence the demand for minerals and metals both are growing in India.
The overall mining sector in India is having a positive outlook and we see all the core sectors of mining like coal, iron ore, cement, zinc, copper, and aluminum are adding more production capacity every year. This growth trajectory is also supported by an increase in demand, policy support, and innovation. The financial results of major metal mining companies endorse the overall performance of this sector visibly.
What is the current market size of your products? Which segments are driving the demand for these products?
For our kind of portfolio, we have an overall robust market share in this competitive market. Construction segment (mainly railways/roads); huge investment on infrastructure development with impetus from the government is on the boom. Metal mining like zinc and iron ore and coal forms the basic core of the mining segment for our Business. We have a major presence in coal, iron ore, cement, zinc, and copper.
In light of the plans of infrastructure creation and reforms in mining, what opportunities do you foresee for construction equipment?
Construction equipment manufacturing needs to gear up in keeping with the thrust in infrastructure development that the government is pursuing. Opportunities to bring in new technology, like battery-operated equipment is still in a nascent stage, but the opportunities
are huge.
Many infrastructure projects have been kicked off in the last few years, but not all projects have started actual execution work. OEMs like us are bullish and the effect of reforms in mining will be seen only when the actual mining starts on the ground. Epiroc is geared up to cater to this opportunity.
What are the latest products and solutions from the company for mining applications?
The latest products are better and more productive equipment, which has features like Total Station Navigation in underground drilling equipment, remote assistance technology for providing services to remote locations.
The latest products are being driven by the philosophy of being at the forefront of technology and sustainability. We have introduced many smart products for surface as well as underground mining in the market, which consumes 30 to 50 percent less power as compared to an earlier version.
We are also harnessing a lot on the introduction of automation and software products like Mobilaris, MineRP, ASI Mining, which brings safety and productivity at core.Our all-automation products are encompassed under our 6th Sense offerings, which basically is the Epiroc way to optimise customers’ value chain through automation, system integration.
Battery vehicles are now trending in the market, and we have already launched various battery electric vehicles (BEV) to make the life of a miner easy, main advantages of BEV are zero-emission and no generation of greenhouse gases, which is the need of the planet earth, better productivity, lower operational cost, so BEV is a confluence of sustainable, environment-friendly, safe, and cost-efficient solution for the future.
What are the various challenges faced in the sector you are in?
Challenge currently is external (like the pandemic), which puts intermittent breaks by lockdowns due to the spread. The supply chain got major setbacks and continued to tumble. We have the challenge of quick delivery at the right time and reasonable cost.
Covid surge and lockdowns derange the working capital for many small organisations, and it has a cascading impact on cash infusion in the market. This resulted in a spur in the demand for long credit from OEM and associated working capital issues for OEMs. We have brick Wall such issues now by close monitoring and correct credit evaluation.
What is the level of indigenisation, and what is the dependence on China other countries?
We are a multinational company; we bring the best of the solution from across the globe. Epiroc India is blessed to have product companies in India and therefore better placed than competitors place. We are committed to the government’s initiative of Make in India and our factories at Nashik and Hyderabad are live examples of the same. We have a purpose of setting the plants in India to maximise localisation from Nashik factory and I can state we have attained localisation largely and we better this every year. We are very proud of this.
Share insights on the technological up-gradation that has happened recently or might happen in near future in the construction and engineering business.
Automation is the need of the hour. We have realised this and have taken proactive actions on time and thus we have technology products, which are ahead of time now. Viz battery equipment, Bench Remote for working a cluster of equipment from a distant remote-controlled cabin.
Telematics and Certiq enabled equipment. With our acquisition of automation and digital companies like ASI Mining and Mobilaris we have shown our intent in this field. Epiroc has made tremendous progress with its digital and automation solutions, providing mining and civil engineering customers with
increased safety, enhanced operational excellence, and improved productivity. Epiroc is in sync with the times and provides the customer with reports and real-time scenarios for all applications.
Our goal is to make our customers’ value chain and operations smarter, safer, and seamless. We strive to achieve that by.
- Long term commitment and strong partnerships
- Automation solutions based on proven Rig Control System
- Open systems and standardization for mixed fleets
6th Sense is our answer to our customer’s need for digitalisation to make their operations safer and more productive. Under this umbrella, we have gathered a suite of solutions and a holistic approach to make change happen. Implementing new technology can be challenging. That is why our 6th Sense approach is based on close OEM - customer collaboration and continuously addresses people and process changes.
Epiroc has set the industry standard for modern digitalised mines, widely used by industry leaders in all continents like state-of-the-art real-time 3D situational awareness for both control rooms as well as for all miners in mobile apps or allowing people/asset tracking and systems integration that opens the lid and enables transparency and empowerment for everyone just to name a few.
Companies are adopting our latest technological innovation and opting for it as it helps them in improving safety, productivity, and saving money.
What can be the possible challenges in the post-Covid scenario?
We all know Covid is not here to stay forever, however, at the same time it is still there affecting the life of human beings, predicting post-Covid is a bit difficult, but since we have experience for past two years of Covid, we are better equipped to handle any menace. The covid environment is the new normal, and we as industry leaders, need to adapt and move on. Hybrid working will be the norm.
We need to adopt a hybrid type of work culture, which has its own advantage and disadvantage; however, this is the optimum solution what I feel to balance work-life in a difficult situation like a pandemic.
How do you look at the opportunities for the mining equipment market after the mining policy revival?
The mining policy has been received with cautious optimism and firms are waiting to see the change on the ground before they comment. The policy on paper is good and has implementable plans too. Labour contracts too should be in line with reality. The opening up of the mining sector is a welcome move and as the overall rating of India increases across all sectors, mining too would catch up and it is awaiting to boom.
We can hope for many new private players coming and big international players too eying to enter Indian mining if the policy works on the ground.
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