Our priorities mirror India’s Viksit Bharat goals
VG Sakthikumar, Chairman and Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India, speaks on the growth priorities for the Indian market in the next three to five years.
With India focusing on mega infrastructure projects, how do you see the demand evolving for large vs mid-sized or small equipment?
India’s infrastructure story has two tracks that will run in parallel for the next decade. On one side, large flagship projects such as metro lines, high speed rail, expressways, long span bridges and airports will continue to pull demand for high-capacity batching plants, long reach boom pumps like the S56SXF, high output mixers and crushers. In this space, productivity per shift, reach and reliability are critical because delays have a national impact.
On the other side, there is a huge and growing base of mid-sized and smaller projects in housing, warehousing, data centres, city roads, industrial buildings and tier II and tier III urbanisation. For this segment, compact booms, line pumps, transit mixers, FBP 29 and self-loading mixers will remain the workhorses.
Rental demand will also keep mid-sized and small equipment very active, because many contractors prefer to hire for specific project phases rather than own everything. So while large equipment will grow faster in value terms, mid and small equipment will continue to dominate in volume and geographical reach, which is important when we talk about balanced growth across the country.
What role does localisation play in your product strategy for India?
Localisation is at the heart of our strategy and a key part of our Atmanirbhar approach. Our machines are designed in our Global Capability Centre in India and manufactured in our Global Manufacturing Hub here. That gives us three clear advantages. First, we can tailor products to Indian conditions, from roads and climate to fuel quality and application patterns, instead of simply adapting an imported design. Second, our local supply chain for structures, drums, hydraulics, electricals and controls means faster deliveries and more affordable parts. Third, it allows us to export from India with confidence because we fully control the design and manufacturing base.
The S56SXF is a good symbol of this approach. A 56-metre boom pump that is engineered and built in India, and not imported fully built, shows how Indian manufacturing can match global benchmarks and support the infrastructure needs of a rising India.
What are your growth priorities for the Indian market in the next three to five years?
In the next three to five years, our priorities are closely linked to India’s own priorities for Viksit Bharat. We have to make concrete, and the equipment that produces it, more sustainable. We have already taken a major step by bringing precast technology to India. We have partnered with MAX-truder GmbH to introduce proven German precast technology here, and we are showcasing this at Excon 2025. Precast will play a key role in faster, cleaner and more repeatable construction.
We will strengthen our core concrete ecosystem with better batching accuracy, more efficient mixers, dependable pumping and strong recycling. We will build out new verticals like crushers, precast and dry mortar, so that customers who trust us for concrete can work with us across a wider part of their value chain.
We will deepen our green portfolio, including hybrids, CNG, EV and energy efficient systems, in line with India’s decarbonisation path and the broader climate commitments the country has taken. We will continue to expand our digital and AI capabilities, not as standalone products, but as tools that make existing machines more valuable.
Finally, we will keep increasing the share of products that are designed and manufactured in India and exported to other regions. For us, India is not just a market. It is also a base from which world class construction equipment can go out to the world and carry the story of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
What are the new products you are showcasing at Excon 2025?
At Excon 2025, our starting point is very clear: as India rises and builds for Viksit Bharat, our machines must reach higher, work cleaner and deliver faster. The scale of India’s infrastructure pipeline is pushing everyone to rethink what a concrete and construction ecosystem should look like. We see this as an opportunity. Whenever the country demands a new kind of equipment, SCHWING Stetter India wants to be the player that takes up the challenge and brings a practical solution.
Over the years we have invested in local R&D and our Global Capability Centre in Chennai so that these solutions are imagined and engineered in India. Today, our machines are fully designed here and manufactured with indigenous technology in our Global Manufacturing Hub. That is our contribution to Atmanirbharta in this industry.
For the first time, we are introducing an Innovation Booth at Excon. This space will not just display machines. It will showcase the technology inside them and how AI, digital controls and new energy systems can help projects move with more speed, scale, skill and sustainability.
We will exhibit around 30 products, including 20 new launches at Excon 2025, such as:
• Schwing Stetter CNG Hybrid Truck Mixer – India’s first CNG based mixer solution for fleets that want to reduce diesel use and emissions without changing their operating pattern overnight.
• Schwing Stetter Electric Truck Mixer – India’s first EV truck mixer, suited for tunnels, airports and dense urban cores where zero tailpipe emissions and low noise are becoming project requirements.
• Schwing Stetter India’s largest boom pump, S56SXF – India’s first 56 m boom pump, designed and manufactured in India to serve long reach pours on expressways, metros and high-rise projects.
• Schwing Stetter Hybrid Boom Pump, 36 m – India’s first hybrid boom pump. It gives contractors the ability to pump on electric power when power is available at site, while still having diesel flexibility.
• SCHWING Stetter Compact Boom Pump, 31 m on two-axle truck – a true city boom that combines reach with a smaller footprint and lower investment, very relevant for urban cores.
On the concrete logistics and versatility side:
• Schwing Stetter Truck Mixer Pump, FBP 29 – a 7 cu m mixer with a 29 m boom on one chassis, so one machine can drive in, pour and move out.
• Schwing Stetter SLM with Cold Start engine – a self-loading mixer tuned for cold and high-altitude regions, where reliability in tough conditions is critical.
For circular economy and materials:
• Schwing Stetter C&D Waste Recycling Crusher and
• Schwing Stetter Stone Crusher – both aimed at supporting high quality aggregates and responsible handling of construction and demolition waste in line with India’s resource efficiency goals.
• Schwing Stetter Concrete Recycling Plant – to recover aggregates and grey water from returned concrete.
For concrete production and value-added products:
• Schwing Stetter Containerised Mobile Plant with Twin Shaft mixer – a high-performance plant that can move as projects move and support fast track jobs.
• Schwing Stetter Twin Shaft Mixer for 150 mm aggregate – for demanding mixes and mass concreting like dams and heavy foundations.
• Schwing Stetter Dry Mortar Plant – to support the growing use of factory-made dry mix products in housing and infrastructure.
• Schwing Stetter Ice Plant – for temperature-controlled concrete in hot regions and continuous heavy pours.
• Schwing Stetter Precast Concrete Equipment – to support the shift towards precast, modular and factory produced elements that are key to faster, cleaner construction.
• Schwing Stetter Shotcrete Pump for shorter tunnels and mining applications – focused on safety and speed in underground works.
Taken together, this is not just a product list. It is our answer to how India can meet its infrastructure ambitions for Viksit Bharat with equipment that is designed, built and supported in India.
How are your machines addressing the demand for efficiency, safety and sustainability in India’s infrastructure growth?
We like to think in very simple terms: litres saved, kilowatts saved and kilograms of cement saved for every cubic metre placed. That is how equipment can quietly contribute to India’s decarbonisation and cost efficiency goals. The FBP 29 is a good example of efficiency. It replaces a separate transit mixer and a separate pump with one unit. One chassis, one crew, one mobilisation. That reduces fuel consumed, traffic at site and coordination delays. For urban work and night closures, this makes a visible difference to both cost and congestion.
Our Electric Truck Mixer and the Hybrid Boom Pump are aimed at reducing diesel use and emissions without forcing customers to compromise on output. Electric drive-in tunnels or city cores improves working conditions, lowers local pollution and helps owners align with project level sustainability and ESG targets.
Safety is built into how we design batching controls, booms, self-loading mixers and shotcrete pumps. Guarded platforms, logical HMI layouts, interlocks and ARAI certification on key machines are all part of reducing human error. The shotcrete pump for tunnel and mining work is specifically focused on keeping people away from the immediate face while still getting the job done quickly. On sustainability, our concrete recycling plants, C&D recycling crusher and stone crusher help customers close the loop on materials instead of treating every load as linear consumption. Our batching systems focus on accurate dosing so cement is not wasted as a safety margin, which saves cost and also reduces the carbon footprint per cubic metre.
Most importantly, these machines are already working on India’s marquee projects – coastal roads, metro systems, expressways, high speed rail, airports, industrial corridors and dams. So, the efficiency and sustainability benefits are not on paper. They are contributing every day to the infrastructure that will shape Viksit Bharat.
How are you incorporating digital technologies like telematics, AI or automation in your machines?
We have moved from talking about smart machines in general to solving very specific problems with digital tools. Our batching plants use Schwing control systems with recipe management, moisture correction and SCADA. This reduces dosing errors, saves cement and creates clean digital records that customers, consultants and lenders can rely on. Our telematics platform on truck mixers, pumps and self-loading mixers help owners see utilisation, idling, fuel consumption and basic health parameters from a central dashboard.
We are working on AI assisted features such as guided positioning of transit mixers under the plant, anomaly alerts in batching patterns and nudges for safer operation. Remote access to batching plants is another focus area so that owners can supervise multiple sites without being physically present, which fits very well with the scale at which India is now building.
The idea is not to overload the operator with screens. It is to give plant heads, fleet managers and business owners the information they need to run their operations with less waste and more predictability, which again supports the efficiency agenda behind Viksit Bharat.
How is your company addressing after sales service and spare parts availability in remote project sites?
India builds in some very remote places, and our machines have to support that reality. Our aim is to be close to our customers as much as possible, and we work continuously towards that. We already have 28 branches across India with 14 service centres. Recently, we have appointed more than 20 dealers for high demand products like self-loading mixers, mini-series batching plants and small stationary pumps, so that we can support customers wherever they are building.
We combine this physical network with regional parts warehouses, mobile service vans and digital support. Our customer portal allows customers to identify and order parts online. Our service teams use digital tools to track calls, response times and closure quality so that we can keep improving.
Telematics and smart controls give early warnings for some issues, so we can guide customers or plan interventions before a breakdown stops a pour. We also invest heavily in operator and technician training, because a well-trained person on site can often prevent a small issue from becoming a large one.
The goal is simple: protect uptime and protect each critical concreting window, whether the site is in a metro city, a coastal belt or a remote valley in the Himalayas.
How do you see the rental equipment ecosystem shaping demand for your products?
The rental ecosystem has become an important part of how India builds and how infrastructure reaches every district. Self- loading mixers, compact booms, line pumps, truck mixers and now even specialised units like the FBP 29 are finding a strong place in rental fleets. Contractors like the flexibility, and rental companies push us to design machines that are easy to operate, robust, simple to maintain and quick to turn around between jobs.
We support this in three ways. We make machines that a new operator can learn quickly. We offer telematics so owners can track utilisation, location and basic health. And we provide training and support tailored to rental customers, including uptime kits and quick response.
As projects move deeper into tier II and tier III cities and into more remote regions, rental will continue to grow. Our job is to make sure Schwing machines are the preferred choice, both for the owners of the fleets and for the people who work with them every day, so that India’s growth story has reliable concrete equipment behind it.
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