With the revival of road construction projects in India, the market for construction equipment (CE) and road building equipment- such as crushing and screening plants and RAP-mixing asphalt plants - is expected to open up in a big way. As for the material handling equipment segment - which includes mobile cranes and reach stackers - a lot of new opportunities are going to be presented by the national port modernisation initiative, Railways, Metro projects, solar power projects and irrigation projects, in addition to the road projects. Enhanced public spending in infrastructure, increased private equity, ambitious production targets in coal mining, the Smart City initiative, urban infrastructure renewal and continued inflow of foreign capital are further expected to boost the market for construction equipment.

Challenges
Subdued demand has been the primary challenge over the last two years. Now with the improvement in the growth enablers as mentioned above, a positive correction has begun this year. Lower rental rates had lead hirers to shift to pre-owned cranes. But now with more and more focus on safety by end-users and the recent changes in the emission norms mandated by the Supreme Court, we see a spurt in the demand for new cranes.

A platform of opportunities
The CII-Excon is the flagship trade fair for the CE industry in India, the biggest of its kind. This year with the Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (ICEMA) as the sector partner, we expect Excon to be more vibrant and industry-specific. So yes, it's definitely a morale booster for the CE market. Apart from providing national and international CE manufacturers with a forum to flex their technological muscle, the show will also enable direct interaction with a large number of customers on a variety of aspects - like new products, new models, pricing, service, etc - factors which play the most important role in enhancing customer experience.

Showcasing innovation
Excon is a great platform for TIL to showcase its expertise in material handling and road building solutions, developed over nearly six decades, both in-house and through alliances with global technology leaders like Manitowoc, Hyster and Astec. The expo provides us with the forum to highlight our brand strengths and our end-to-end product and service portfolio to the material handling and road building segment. This year at Excon - OD4, Outdoor Area ' we plan to launch some new products that will reinforce what TIL stands for - 'Technology. Innovation. Leadership'. On display will be our long boom truck cranes (TMS 880M and TMS 860), new long boom rough-terrain crane (RT 750), new version of pick-n-carry crane (PIXEF), new Hyster-TIL® reachstacker, 300T all-terrain crane (GMK 6300L), mobile crushing plant (FT 2650), vertical shaft impact crusher (VSI 2500), jaw crusher (H3244) and cone crusher (K 300).

Expectations
As always, we expect huge footfalls at the expo, resulting in insightful interactions that in turn would lead to mutually gainful business propositions. R&D at TIL is always working with the latest technologies to enhance customer profitability. We also undertook a recent drive to upgrade many of our existing products. Excon 2017 is expected to generate plenty of new opportunities for us to offer our products and services to the customer.