Rural infra, healthcare to drive demand for CE

The construction equipment industry sees two emerging categories—infrastructure development in rural India and the creation of a strong healthcare system—as growth drivers in the coming years, even as the industry sees green shoots with the revival of infrastructure projects.

Doosan Bobcat India hosts financiers meet

The compact construction equipment sales is gaining momentum in the Indian context and therefore the easy availability of financing options for customers is inevitable.

Compact and powerful

With the growth drivers of urban and rural infrastructure markets opening up, mini construction equipment segment is looking for a renewed growth in the coming years.

Bigger Digger

Optimum utilisation of excavators is of utmost importance for the economic operation of the machine. All hydraulic excavator OEMs have introduced matching technologies for the optimum performance of their machines.

Demand is expected to remain buoyant in the near future

Elgi Equipments offers portable compressed air solutions for a wide range of applications. Ramesh Ponnuswami, Executive Director, Elgi Equipments shares more on the industry scenario and solutions offered by the company.

Compressed Air Power

With government focusing on infrastructure creation and development, construction and mining are expected to grow in the coming days, which means more compressed air power requirement.

The Earth Movers and Shakers

As a consequence of the excavation activity gaining momentum, earthmovers like front-end loaders, crawler dozers, traxcavators and other earthmoving equipment are registering a CAGR of 15-18 per cent. Since the Indian economy is reviving, these equipment are also finding emerging markets in other sectors as well.

Hiring sector to regain top position in rental equipment purchase

Many infrastructure projects were announced in 2013 and 2014 which got awarded to several Infra companies and contractors after competitive bidding. Quite a few of these however got stalled due to land acquisition issues, environmental clearances and ability to arrange funds.

Government should set up an independent commission for PPP regulations

It is a clich? now that the infrastructure sector is a critical enabler for sustaining economic growth as well as for ensuring its inclusiveness. This alone could enable a two per cent growth in GDP.

Caterpillar brand is synonymous with durability and reliability

Our cusomer support agreements (CSA) deliver the highest asset uptime and lowest cost of operation over the entire product life cycle, says Subir Bhattacharyya, Advisor - TIPL. 0 - - 16259 14 102 2011-06-01 00:00:00.000 Equipment India ACE is in the process of doubling the capacity

We are focusing on backward integration especially in-house fabrication with specialised strengthened steel, says Jitendra Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, Action Construction Equipment. Excerpts from the interview.

What is the demandsupply scenario for backhoes in India? What is the market share of ACE for backhoes in India and growth envisaged?
As of now, the demand-supply is at equilibrium. ACE has focused in this segment and is targeting to capture 15 per cent market share by 2012 with approximately doubling the growth in next three years.

What is the market potential for backhoes in India in terms of volume and value? What are the growth enablers?
The market potential is around 22,000 units as per the past trend, value wise it touches around Rs 4,000 crore. India is focusing on infrastructure development in a big way like China and other developing countries and many MNCs in tie-up with Indian companies are moving into the segment. Also, timely completion of the projects will play a major role for enhancement of the potential.

Could you tell us about the range offered by ACE and their features?
We offer basically two models with different variants, the first one is a common 76-hp two-wheel drive, and the other is 96-hp four-wheel drive model. In addition, we have various combinations and optional attachments which can be added or removed depending on the application of a backhoe loader. ACE is focusing on backward integration especially in-house fabrication with specialised strengthened steel. This is a strength for producing best quality with competitive pricing, and also marching with new patterns like BS III compatible engine as per the requirement.

What is the existing manufacturing capacity for backhoes?
ACE has a capacity of manufacturing 200 units per month and is in the process of enhancing the same to nearly 400 units per month in the near future.

Which segment contributes maximum share for backhoes in India?
Plant hirers comprise around 6570 per cent of the market.

What is the rental scenario for these products?
One can anywhere rent out a machine on an average of Rs 600800 per hour and if rented on a monthly basis, one can generate Rs 70,00080,000 per month with a fixed expense of around Rs 20,000 per machine.

What is the RoI on a backhoe?
The machine if purchased on a loan recovers its cost in three years excluding an average monthly income of Rs 20,000.

Tell us about the attachments offered along with backhoe?
We offer various attachments namely forklift, 6-in-1 clam shovel, ripper tooth, rock breaker etc. Various bucket sizes are also available for different applications.

How do you look at the competition in this segment?
With more and more companies entering in the segment, the competition has become fierce as well as interesting. But, since ACE's USP is better quality at a right and highly reasonable price, we are sure we will be looking for big results in a short span of time. Nevertheless, we are confident about our well established sales and service network spread across India, and service being a major issue of concern, we will leave competition far behind.

How do you look at the replacement/repowering market for the units sold which are not complying with Bharat Stage III norms?
Engine manufactures have already worked on this and government regulations have to be complied with. A plan is being chalked out to ensure the required modification, but practically it may take some time to get the work accomplished.

Could you brief us on ACE's strength in training and service network?
ACE has already been rated as the fastest growing construction equipment company. With enhancement in product range as well as capacities, the company has already chalked out a detailed programme to ensure not only to retain the present training and service status but to enhance the same for betterment to the level of perfection and entire satisfaction of the customers. New training centres with all modern facilities and best expertise available in the market is going to be utilised. Train the trainer programme and continuous and vigorous training camps supported by seminars will be the part of the continuous process for the same. Also in this line, we already run a residential training school for service engineers and operators with a capacity of 30 candidates in one batch.