ACE is a one of the only 100% swadeshi CE company and the largest player in the Mobile and Tower Crane segments in India

– SORAB AGARWAL

Executive Director, Action Construction Equipment

What are the grey areas that the CE fraternity and government should look at and resolve for India’s construction to be at par with world standards and to become the 2nd largest industry in the world?

The Indian construction and infrastructure sector has seen good growth in the last few years even though the Covid pandemic did pull back the growth momentum temporarily. Increased government Capex spends and the policy support has kept the infrastructure development in the country at a good pace.

Some of the challenges faced by the construction sector are listed below:

Lack of skilled workers: The supply is not at par with the demand for skilled construction workers and equipment operators.  The availability of fresh trained manpower, skilled operators and workers to operate heavy machinery is a big challenge in this sector.

Rental Penetration: Equipment Rentals is a suitable option for a large number of construction businesses which is Capex heavy. Unfortunately organized rental penetration in our country is pretty low.

Demand fluctuations: There is no consistency in the demand owing to the fluctuations in the market thereby making capacity planning challenging for the equipment manufacturers.

Used equipment market: The secondary market for used construction equipment is not well developed in India. Thus the resale of the used equipment is a growing challenge for the industry.

And lastly: Since the market is price and value cognizant, the equipment manufacturers are constrained for operating margins.

How do you predict equipment sales in 2023-24 and beyond considering both ongoing & upcoming big ticket infra projects and the elections in 2022? How is your company gearing up to meet the forecasted demand?

The demand for equipment in the 2nd half of the current year has been pretty strong so far and we expect this momentum to sustain in Q4 as well.  Going forward ideally we would have expected a very strong FY24 owing to the current momentum and the Capex oriented approach of our Government coupled with buoyancy in the manufacturing, logistics and Real Estate sectors.  But a little caution comes to the mind due to the current global economic scenario coupled with increasing number of Covid cases especially in China.

ACE is a one of the only 100% swadeshi construction equipment company and the largest player in the Mobile and Tower Crane segments in India. We are commissioning one of the largest crawler and truck crane manufacturing plants in India this year, which will enhance our production capacity and will help us to add bigger models in our portfolio. 

We are currently operating at 75-80% capacity utilization in mobile cranes segment and are contemplating a Capex proposal to enhance our capacity by another 50%.

What was your focus at bauma Conexpo India to drive focus on sustainability and automation?

ACE has one of the widest range of cranes and construction equipment in the country and our products are rugged, dependable and cost effective and are backed by all india extensive network for Service and Spare Parts.  This strength inbuilt in our product and the company definitely help customers to achieve their end goals economically and at a better pace.

In continuation with our philosophy of innovation and upgradation, we are going to become the country’s first manufacturer of Electric construction equipment with introduction of a fully electric mobile crane which will be displayed at bauma 2023, Noida.  It will not be out of place to mention that this product is going to be a game changer for the crane end users owing to it’s lower operating costs. The technology has been evolved and developed indigenously by our inhouse R&D Centre.

We feel that going forward converting to electric and further lower emission technologies will provide sustainability to the industry.  Apart from the above, we are going to showcase indigenously developed 160 Tonnes Crawler Crane which again will be the biggest crane being manufactured in India alongwith models of newly developed Aerial Work Platforms.

Where do you see India’s CE industry in general and your company in particular, stand in terms of its efforts in adopting/implementing new trends like zero emissions, autonomous machines, smart machines electrification and digitalization and alternative fuels to contribute towards a more sustainable eco-friendly environment?

Reducing emissions and saving the environment is the way forward and the whole world is adopting the same at a good pace.

As mentioned above, we are in the process of introducing India’s First fully electric mobile crane which will be subsequently followed by other tonnages.

Apart from the above, we are very much open to the idea of evolving machines based on Hydrogen IC Engines or Fuel Cell technology.  As soon as the operating environment with respect to commercially viable hydrogen becomes conducive, we are very hopeful that the shift towards hydrogen technology would start to happen in the next 2-3 years in our country.

We are more or less ready with our fully electric crane offering but unfortunately the regulatory norms with respect to CMVR and the necessary norms for approvals are as of now not in place in our country and are expected to be in place over the next 4-5 months.

Going forward, we are sure that artificial intelligence will also have a major role in the way machines are built and operated and shall be inculcating various aspects of artificial intelligence and autonomous machines depending on the suitability, benefits and safety with respect to our product range.

India being a price-centric market, how do you maintain the equilibrium between performance versus cost?

Value for Money would define the word “cost effective” for us and we have always ensured to provide our customers with Value for Money products while ensuring productivity and technical capabilities  In today’s world, Performance and Cost both are equally important. All of our products are designed in-house keeping Indian operational conditions in mind and to provide best in class performance alongwith cost effective pricing and lower operational costs.

What are your training initiatives to address the issue of skilled worker shortage through automation and digitalization?

ACE has a Dedicated Training Center at Faridabad to provide operation and maintenance training to customer personnel. Regular periodic training courses have been formulated to enhance operator and engineer skill levels. We provide operator training on all our new models. In fact, for every new model or type of machine that we supply, experienced operators give 15 days training on the machines.

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