With over 330 years of innovation and passion, Husqvarna India Products provides construction professionals with support, service and a wide range of machines, diamond tools and all accessories that you need to cut, saw, drill, demolish, grind and polish concrete. The company’s factory is located at Nashik. Tennyson Anthony, General Manager – Construction Products, Husqvarna India Products, speaks on the present size and growth rate of the concrete equipment market in India.

What is the present size and growth rate of the concrete equipment market in India? How has the concrete equipment market evolved in the last couple of years?

Concrete equipment market in India is looking very positive currently, backed by the strong investment plans of the Central and State Governments and private core sector companies. We have observed that the demands across all product ranges of concrete equipment viz batching plants, transit mixers, concrete pumps, self-loading mixers, etc. are consistently growing over a period of time after the lock downs. In the past few years, demands for high productivity and high-capacity machines are increasing and customers are open to explore more technologically-advanced products and we feel the product evolution of equipment will be faster in coming years.

What are the new products and solutions offered?

KYB-Conmat is introducing new and advance ranges of self-loading concrete mixers—CSLM 2800, CSLM 4300 and CSLM 4800—which can produce 2.8, 4.3 and 4.8 cbm of concrete in each cycle, respectively. These CSLMs offer high productivity, faster loading and unloading, and have an electronic weigh batching system with printer. The concrete mixing quality is also superior due to the advanced design of the spiral blades. These machines are very operator friendly due to its single joystick control and reversible operator posts.

In India, the use of advanced automation and digital technologies in concrete equipment is still not as per the requirement. What are the measures needed to improve the utilisation of automation and control technologies in concrete equipment?

We have seen an increased demand, mainly from corporate customers and big fleet owners for advanced automation, digital technologies including GPS enabled equipment for the past few years. These customers are willing to adopt various latest technologies in concrete equipment which will fetch them increased the operational efficiency, offer high safety and optimise the cost of owning and operation.

With the government focusing on the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, how would it catapult growth for the concrete equipment market?

Five pillars of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ or 'Self-Reliant India Mission’ – Economy, Infrastructure, System, Vibrant Demography and Demand. We feel, the focus on improving the economic and infrastructure activities will increase demands of construction equipment and this will lead to overall improvements of market scenario in our sector.

In KYB-Conmat, we are practising the “Atmanirbhar Bharat” concept from the inception: Our entire range of products are designed, developed, and manufactured in India keeping in mind the ‘heavy-duty cycle’ requirements by our esteemed Indian customers. KYB-Conmat has a state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing facility in Vadodara, Gujarat, spreading over 5, 00,000 SqFt. to produce technologically advanced yet economically viable Equipment. We are happy to convey that we have done a production and sale of more than 10000 equipment from this facility.

What can be the possible challenges in the post-Covid scenario? How do you look at the opportunities for the concrete equipment market?   

The infrastructure development sector is recovering fast from the operational disruptions, restricted mobility and social distancing norms enforced due to the Covid scenario. Various stakeholders are now focusing on the backlog clearance of projects, which were delayed due lock downs and other restrictions. There is an increase in demand for equipment and other construction materials. The major challenges faced by the industry is the lack of availability of manpower for execution of various infra projects and very high appreciation of input cost of materials like steel.