Germany is in the sixth position when we look at the export of mining machines to India.
Rajesh Nath Managing Director, VDMA India What was your focus at the IME 2022? Our focus was that we are part of the German industry. So, our focus was on, of course, the German mining machinery manufacturers. They have
– Rajesh Nath
Managing Director, VDMA India
What was your focus at the IME 2022?
Our focus was that we are part of the German industry. So, our focus was on, of course, the German mining machinery manufacturers. They have a very old tradition and history while they have been globally very active. And as we know, mining in Germany was under very difficult circumstances since we have some of the deepest mines in Germany. The mining machinery manufacturers are quite active and have a lot of experience in global business today. Also, supplying machines for extracting coal or minerals was also under very difficult circumstance. If you look at in India, the coal production still constitutes a major share of our energy. If we look at the fossil fuel contribution, the total energy packet of India is more than 50% and India is looking also for 1000 million tonnes of coal. So, for the German mining machinery manufacturers, India still remains an attractive market.
If we look at the export of German machinery to India, this is to the tune of roughly around 45 to 50 million euros and I think there is possibility to increase this. India is among one of the few countries which is still quite active into extraction and in the production of coal.
How do you perceive the mining market in terms of the equipment players in India?
Actually, if you look at the scenario the manufacturers in India especially the mining machinery manufacturers, we have a good bit of manufacturers, but we also have a lot of components suppliers. When we look at the total equipments, the import is still a good bit of the mining machinery requirements. The total imports of India’s mining machinery are around 600 million Euros. And of course, we have China which is a major exporter of mining machinery. Italy also supplies mining machinery, Germany is in the sixth position when we look at the export of mining machines to India.
I think a large part of the industry’s mining machinery is important for us and we have the Indian manufacturers also who are manufacturing. We have a lot of the foreign players also who are now well established in India and who are manufacturing in India also.
For example, we have the German companies who have the surface miners. So, they are manufacturing and assembling it in India. Then, there is Tata Hitachi who is manufacturing in India. We have Volvo construction. We have more and more foreign companies who are manufacturing in India and certainly that is because of the price advantage.
What are the challenges in the mining equipment industry?
Looking at the entire scenario that we have, I think one of the biggest challenges is to look at the public sector units. The PSU units go for this L 1 path that they follow. And normally, we find that if you look at foreign manufacturers, they supply equipments which are good of technology. But certainly, it comes at a price. So, I think this is one of the challenges for foreign suppliers to the Indian market. They may not always be able to fulfill the L 1 criteria. I think for example, we have certain German companies when you look at the underground mining equipment as there are not too many global suppliers of underground equipment. And the German Coal Industry was largely driven by underground mining.
How do you look about the initiatives in the skilling and training of equipment operators?
When you talk about technology it means that you will need brain and skills. We had come with a German delegation few years back and there was participation from the state of RW in order in Westphalia in Germany. Now RW is one of the rich mining States and a lot of mining machinery manufacturers and mining activity happens here. So, they have an institute which is specifically for training. So when that delegation visited, we visited Tata Steel, Coal India and Hindustan Copper and others. We told them about the possibilities of training and the Indian industry also is gearing up for training. We believe that you may have sophisticated equipment, but unless you are able to have trained manpower to handle the equipment, it is very difficult. And I think that is much required in India. The German manufacturers can play an important role in imparting training. They also focus on giving training to their customers, before actually the customer starts using the machines.
How do you think an exhibition like IME helps the industry?
The biggest advantages of such exhibitions like IME is that it brings the industry together. The industry comes to know what are the new developments, which are the companies, what are they supplying – it is always an evolving stage. And now especially, we are for example, in Europe or in Germany, we are talking about smart manufacturing like how can mining become smart? In Germany, we are very seriously thinking about zero emissions in mining. So when there was a study done, we found out that most of the emissions in mining actually came from two factors. One is the equipment which runs on diesel. And the second is the electricity used itself for running the mines. And here if in these two areas, for example, you are using equipments, which perhaps run on electric batteries, specially the off-the-road equipment be it the dumper, loaders – they run on electric batteries now – there you can reduce the emissions to a larger extent. So if you are using say wind energy, solar energy, again you are reducing the carbon footprint. And I think this is the way it has to go ahead and we can contribute to the vision of our Prime Minister of making India ‘Zero Emission’ country by 2070 with the support of the mining sector. And we also need to think about how mining can become more green and smarter. You need to change the existing equipment to electric equipment. So, I think here the role of government is very important. A certain incentive or support from the government is required so that the whole mining process becomes greener and sustainable.
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