Escorts has entered into a tie-up with Italian crane maker Locatelli to locally manufacture large skew (360 degree rotation) cranes of 60-80 tonne capacity. Production of these cranes is likely to begin in a year and half. These cranes are used in material handling for large infrastructure projects such as power plants, metro and bridges, etc.

With demand from the construction equipment business on a high, the company is now searching for about 35 acres for capacity expansion over the next two years. Since the company?s Ballabhgarh plant operating at 100 per cent, it needs to take up more land on a lease basis. This will happen very soon, according to a top company official.

The Locatelli tie-up is just the first of multiple such technical collaborations currently in the works across the construction and farm equipment businesses. For the first vertical, at least 15 new products are planned in the next 18 months for areas such as mine equipment and asphalt handling.