Wu Song who took over as Managing Director of LiuGong India Pvt Ltd on April 1, 2016, after relinquishing his earlier position as CFO of the company, shares his thoughts on the company?s plans with EQUIPMENT INDIA.

Having introduced the 922 excavator in India, how do you plan to promote this equipment in the country?
The excavator market is very big in India. In fact, since 2009, our excavator has been present here, but we did not try to focus on volumes. Instead, we focused on our customers to create value for them, and not on low price to win the volumes and build our reputation. By now, our machines have not been sold in large numbers in this market of 150 excavators in India. Our focus is on building the reputation of LiuGong excavators which can create value for the customers and simultaneously we have started the localisation of the components to reduce the cost without compromising on the performance of our machines which have been accepted by the Indian market.

Now India is jumping the emission norms from BS II to BS IV for construction equipment. As such, by 2020, these new norms will be implemented. How do you propose to meet these requirements?
In this aspect, we have a local advantage. Most of our machines are using engines manufactured in India, and we have a very close relationship with the manufacturers. They provide good support to us. For the new engines, the customer is more bothered about the after-sales support. LiuGong has a strategic partnership with Cummins and other engine manufacturers globally. We have a 50:50 joint venture with Cummins - as such, we have an advantage and it will be enjoyed by the India market. We can work together to meet the timelines. Another advantage is that to start with, we can import the latest engines from our China JV to ensure that we do not miss out on any opportunity.

We have invested in manufacturing here and the components can come from anywhere in the globe. So the challenge becomes an advantage to us.

How do you plan to expand the market for excavators?
In our strategy, we are doing two things: first, we ensure our customers feel that our excavators are here to stay and it is not a ?come and leave? product; second, we utilise the local value chain for localisation of components.

How much will LiuGong India be involved in the ?One Belt One Road? project?
LiuGong is already present in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Pakistan. For India the benefits can be shown because many contractors are working in these regions, including the North-east and South. We have already got orders from them.

What will be the LiuGong Way in India?
Focus on customers, face the market and competition to pull my whole system to meet India boom or India era.