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High usage of machinery in construction activities leads to frequent wear & tear of spare parts, thus resulting in poor equipment and thereby supporting the demand for components, accessories and spares for construction equipment. Equipment Times looks at the market outlook, strategy at a time when technological disruptions are rapidly defining businesses in the sector, performance of products, potential new areas for expansion and the proposed new launches of construction equipment parts.

Stringent government regulations on emission and the safety of construction equipment are forcing equipment owners to check their equipment periodically to avoid any major failure. Regulations also mandate the periodic replacement of engine, suspension & hydraulic components if they are causing excess pollutions or creating a possibility of equipment failure.

One of the key factors limiting the market growth is the high initial cost of replacement parts and services. Most of the company warranty plans do not cover all the spare parts, thereby increases replacement cost excluded parts that have a warranty. Additionally, construction equipment OEMs are establishing training facilities to train their equipment operators. Well-trained operators carefully handle construction equipment, reducing the wear and tear of machine components, thus negatively affecting the market statistics.

Technological developments, such as digital twin and connectivity solutions, in equipment are reducing equipment maintenance, affecting the industry revenue. Moreover, construction equipment owners are focusing on purchasing fail-safe machines with advanced sensor integration to reduce downtime and maintenance costs. Fail-safe machines offer the component’s overall statistics related to performance to the owner, enabling efficient management of equipment spare parts.

Equipment Maintenance… 

The construction equipment maintenance and repair market holds approximately 8% to 9% of the global maintenance and repair industry. Ability of maintenance and repair service providers to undertake various measures to tackle and prevent damages that could cause equipment or system failure, is likely to aid growth in the global market.

Moreover, rapid integration of several digital solutions like cloud computing and artificial intelligence in maintenance and repair techniques across the automotive sector would bode well for the global market. These techniques are mainly used to ensure high safety and quality levels of numerous components to avoid the risk of defects in machinery.

In June 2021, for instance, Google Cloud introduced a new tool named Visual Inspection AI to allow manufacturers to detect defects in products amid the manufacturing process before they are shipped.

As poor production quality control often results in significant financial and operational costs, the company developed its new solution for the industry to solve this particular issue at the production scale. The launch of similar tools and solutions by key players are anticipated to aid growth.

Affordable equipment care:

Compared to factory parts, aftermarket heavy equipment parts are more affordable. Using them helps reduce your overhead costs, making it easier for you to submit more competitive estimates and improve project profitability.

More options: OEM parts are made by the brand or the producer contracted by the equipment manufacturer. Aftermarket parts are produced by many more manufacturers, giving you access to more options than your OEM options will provide.

Simplified fleet upkeep: With parts that are less expensive and easier to get, you can establish regular preventive maintenance routines to keep your fleet in excellent condition. You can also perform repairs when needed to minimize downtime.

Industry speaks…

Shailesh Sharma, Director Operations, Industrial Region, SKF India & Southeast Asia, said, “India is one of the fastest growing construction markets in the world and the country has the most infrastructure projects, following by the US and China. The economic growth is leading to an increased demand for better infrastructure, including improved road connectivity. With coal usage increasing to offset the global energy crisis, mining activities are also increasing. Demand for Indian-manufactured construction equipment is evolving globally with exports witnessing a growth of 60% YoY in FY22. As heavy-duty commercial EVs gain traction and automation takes hold in construction operations, we expect demand for an entirely new range of products and solutions to emerge as well. The outlook for the industry, therefore, looks positive, and provided there are no major economic shocks, the industry will continue to grow in the short and long term.”

Xercsis Marker, Executive Vice President & Business Head, Godrej Lawkim Motors, said, “India refocused on its trade strategy in 2022 by implementing different programs, and policies and leveraging strategies like China-plus-one. We are currently on the path to becoming a major global manufacturing hub with the ability to export items worth $1 trillion by 2030. The growth of India’s manufacturing sector is being fueled by the creation of industrial clusters, the automatic route’s allowing FDI up to 100%, and other factors. The primary markets of Godrej Lawkim Motors include the USA & Europe, and our motors & components are utilized in a variety of commercial & industrial applications. Given the country’s export-heavy economy, we expect our export revenue to treble to approx 94 crores by FY23–24 as consumers in the USA and Europe reduce their reliance on China. Moving from mechanical switches to electronic switches and from induction motors to Brushless DC motors with electronic controllers are two examples of how technology adoption is evolving. In order to keep up with these technological advancements, we have recently introduced E-switch technology into our general-purpose motors making us the first in India to introduce and shift to E-switch technology. With the development in technology picking up across industries, and the ‘Make-In-India’ focus by both State-owned as well as Private Sector entities, Godrej Lawkim Motors sees tremendous opportunities for growth in the calibration services and is aiming for a 30% revenue growth by FY25.”

Sandeep Khullar, Executive Director, Dana India Off-Highway & Commercial Vehicle, said, “The Indian construction equipment (CE) Industry is expected to grow by 4% in 2022 compared to 2021 as per Off-highway research. The industry is further expected to grow by 9% in 2023. National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) period: Coterminous with National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) – 4 Years (FY 22-25), the Indian government is expected to spend ~ 75 billion Dollars on projects like Roads, Railways, Power Transmission, Power Generation, Natural Gas Pipeline, Urban Real-estate, Telecom, Warehousing, Mining, Aviation, Ports, Stadiums, etc which will definitely fuel the growth of CE & Mining equipment in India thus paving the way for the growth of components as well. Government initiatives like Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, through PLI (Production Linked Incentive), are further attracting investments in India for components.”

Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director of Balkrishna Industries (BKT), said, “With the world moving towards a technology-driven mobility solution & ecosystem, we find that tire technology is also rapidly evolving. With the new year approaching, we can expect major investments going toward research for new Tire development to withstand extreme conditions in mining operations. The future tires will need to provide reliability, better fuel economy, better performance, and durability at varied operating conditions. . In fact, as India plans to invest $1.4 trillion in several infrastructure projects by 2025 including projects related to ports, railways, roads, etc. we forecast rising demand for OTR tires. BKT is ready for future innovations in OTR machines of India, with its mobility solutions.”

On the mining front, Poddar said, “The mining sector has been one of the fastest-growing sectors spearheading the demand for OTR tires. In the coming years, we expect the introduction of world-class technologies within the mining domain. One such technology is All Steel Radial Tires in the mining sector. The demand for radial OTR tires has been seen to rise in recent times over bias tires, and this trend is expected to grow due to its benefits over bias. The all-steel radial tires generate less heat during operation due to structural superiority, which in turn gives reliability, higher durability, and much better performance. With more & more large & Ultra Large machines being added to the Indian mining industry to improve productivity and reduce costs. In the coming year, we are expecting more acceptance of radial tires, especially in the earthmoving segment. BKT is the first Indian tire company to produce all-steel radial OTR tires to meet the future requirements of customers and strongly support the Indian mining industry. Adhering to India’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ slogan, BKT is stepping forward.”

Himanshu Sharma, Head ,  Marketing & Corporate Communication, B&R Industrial Automation, said, “Equipment suppliers must understand customers’ needs and deliver products and solutions that are focused and easier to adapt. The market is presented with new inventions every year, but only a few sustain to the challenging market and meet customer demands. It has been seen that as the world is exploring digitally to automate machines and reduce human interference, ready-made standard software solutions are the need of the hour to meet day-to-day challenges. Thus, the heavy equipment industry has started investing a lot to build and maintain proper software that helps reduce the workload and enhance machine performance. B&R has been successful in aligning with such demands with mapp Technology. mapp Technology is revolutionising the creation of software for industrial machinery and equipment. The mapp components are as easy to use as a smartphone app. Rather than writing lines and lines of code to build a user management system, data recording system, recipe system, alarm system, or motion control sequence from the ground up, developers of machine software simply configure the ready-made mapp components with a few clicks of the mouse. Complex algorithms are made easy to manage, and programmers can focus entirely on the process as per the machine’s requirements. mapp components communicate with each other automatically to share necessary information and save you time and effort. Thus, it is now easy to accelerate your development cycles with modular and intelligent software.”

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