We focus on cost of ownership for our customers and onsite productivity. That means high quality manufacturing, backed up with the best customer support to ensure our cranes can keep working at their optimum productivity for as long as possible, says Prem Naithani, National Sales Manager, Mobile and Crawler Cranes, Manitowoc Cranes India.  In an exclusive chat with EQUIPMENT INDIA, Prem Naithani elucidates on the market potential, challenges, and safety issues of the industry. Excerpts from the interview.

How do you find the potential for mobile cranes in the current scenario? 
There is good potential for our Grove AT cranes of over 100T capacity. There are lots of infrastructure and energy jobs coming up, so we expect good demand in the coming years. Our Grove RT cranes, some of which are manufactured under licence by our partner TIL in Kolkata, also remain popular. These are found on infrastructure and energy jobs, and also in general construction.

What was the performance of Manitowoc in the last quarter, and how do you look at ending this fiscal?
Our second quarter net sales for our crane segment worldwide were $554.8 million, up by 22.9 percent from the second quarter of 2010. Operating margin was 5.3 percent. The crane segment order backlog totalled $839 million at 30 June 2011, up by 58 percent from one year ago. For 2011 as a whole, we are not updating our expectations. As we noted in our guidance provided in our secondquarter 2011 earnings release in July and the second quarter earnings, our goals were low double digit year over year percentage growth in crane segment revenue and improved margins building off 2010 trough levels, despite a challenging commodity price environment.

How strong is the Manitowoc presence in the crawler cranes segment? Tell us about the products on offer and their unique features. 
Manitowoc remains one of the world's leading crawler crane manufacturers and a popular choice for customers in India. The latest delivery to India is a Manitowoc 16000 with wind attachment purchased by Amrik Singh & Sons Crane Services. The 400T capacity 16000 is Amrik Singh's largest new crawler crane  and also its first Manitowoc. Working at an 18 m radius, the 16000 with wind attachment has a 49 percent advantage compared with a standard Manitowoc 16000. This allows it to install most 2.5 MW wind turbines (and some larger ones too) on towers up to 85 m.

Manitowoc's crawler crane range stretches from the 73T Manitowoc 8000 up to the 2,300T Manitowoc 31000. The cranes are known for their ease of assembly and transportation, plus their productivity and strength on the job site. Manitowoc crawlercranes continue to enjoy some of the strongest residual values in the industry.

Industry leading technology on the Manitowoc crawler cranes includes the field proven EPIC system with CANBUS technology which delivers high productivity and precise load control by instantly matching a crane's commands to the crane function; and the FACT quick assembly system which aligns crane components precisely for safe, fast and easy assembly.
 
What is the market for high tonners in the crawlers, and how do you look at the future prospects?
The potential market for high capacity crawler cranes is excellent, given the anticipated global demand for energy and infrastructure and the rise of emerging economies, with India leading the way. Manitowoc has focused on applications to help with the needs of customers. So for example, the Manitowoc 31000 has the unique and patented Variable Position Counterweight, which saves time and expense in ground preparation,  often a major factor in industrial or power generation projects. Or the Manitowoc 16000 with wind attachment which is designed for assembling the latest generation of wind turbines, again an important area of activity for many Manitowoc customers.

What differentiates Manitowoc products from the rest of the competition?
In engineering terms,  we focus on cost of ownership for our customers and onsite productivity. That means high quality manufacturing backed up with the best customer support to ensure our cranes can keep working at their optimum productivity for as long as possible. This prolongs their working life and increases their resale value significantly. Besides the EPIC and FACT systems mentioned before, we always try and make our cranes as easy as possible to maneuover to the job site and to assemble once on site.We understand that there are significant costs in running a crane related to the time and effort needed to transport and rig cranes.

Brief us about Manitowoc Crane Care.
Manitowoc Crane Care is a huge differentiator for our company. It helps customers with all aspects of running a crane, from spare parts and maintenance through to training and technical documentation it has a range of services to help customers get the most from their Manitowoc

Cranes.
One recent development for India is the introduction of a Contact Centre at Pune. This centre is staffed by technicallytrained personnel who can give customers live assistance in regard of parts, service or other issues affecting their cranes. Customers simply call a tollfree number to access the centre and because it is linked to other Contact Centres in China, Germany and the US, we are able to offer round the clock support.
 
Our Indian office is also enjoying growing demand for its training services. In 2009, fewer than 100 participants passed through Manitowoc Crane Care's training programmes in India, but in 2010 that number jumped to 222 and by the end of 2011 it should reach over 350.
 
One of the reasons for the increase in the popularity of training is that Manitowoc Crane Care now offers practical handson experience during the training with a Potain MCi 85 A permanently in position in the yard outside the classrooms in Pune. At present, Manitowoc is the only crane manufacturer in India to offer this live training.

What is the potential for tower cranes market in India? What sort of growth do you expect in this segment? 
The potential for tower cranes in India is solid and we are pleased with the sales of Potain cranes this year. We expect next year to be good and then in the short to medium term,  we expect demand to increase more significantly, especially as the residential housing market begins to meet its true potential.

What are the major challenges as an OEM Manitowoc faces, especially taking into account the increasing input costs?
Rising commodity costs is certainly one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers and one that is already upon us. We are working hard with our suppliers to secure the best deals we can. Because we are a global supplier and one of the world's largest crane builders, we are able to negotiate with suppliers, but only so far for sure there will be increased manufacturing costs for the crane industry.

Another major challenge is finding good people. We need skilled manufacturing staff and although the problem is not as bad in India as it is in other countries, it will still represent a challenge for OEMs in the coming years.

What are the implications of Bharat Stage III on Manitowoc?
This new legislation has involved significant engineering input for Manitowoc as we had to virtually redesign our entire product line to take the new engine requirements into account.The new engines are larger and heavier than previous ones so that has been a challenge, but we have remained on schedule and up to date.

How do you view  the potential from the rental segment?
The Indian rental segment has huge scope for growth. Finance may prove a challenge, although we have programmes available through our Manitowoc Finance division that we hope can help in this regard. As long as the demand for cranes continues on its current trajectory, we believe the rental sector will experience good growth. And it will also be good for the industry overall, with contractors and company owners moving towards renting cranes rather than purchasing them  for themselves.

How do you look at the safety issues?
We are seeing a growing safety culture on projects across India. The large energy and industrial companies already have very strict safety regimes, but we are now seeing that extend to other areas. For example, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is extremely safety conscious. It recently sent 53 of its representatives and contractors for a safety training programme on safe crane use with us. Most of our customers too,  send their operators to us for training where our trainer inculcates in them the importance of safety,  so it becomes a habit.

Excon is round the corner. Any new product on the anvil?
We will not be at Excon, but our newly introduced Potain MC125 tower crane, Grove GMK6300L allterrain crane, and Manitowoc 16000 WA crawler crane are generating quite a lot of interest in the market already. More new products? Watch this space?