Hyundai CE India is currently ranked No. 1 in export of excavators and has held this position since 2017

– RAJIV CHATURVEDI

Vice President – Sales and Marketing, After Service and Parts, Hyundai Construction Equipment India

What is your future-outlook for the Indian construction and mining equipment manufacturers?  

India’s economy relies heavily on the infrastructure sector. The sector receives intense attention from the government in order to launch policies that would ensure the country’s creation of world-class infrastructure within a set period of time. This sector plays a significant role in driving India’s overall development.

Overall infrastructure capex is expected to grow at an 11.4% CAGR between FY21 and FY26, driven by spending on water supply, transportation, and urban infrastructure. In the next five years, India plans to invest US $ 1.4 trillion in infrastructure through the “National Infrastructure Pipeline.” Over the next ten years, hundreds of new cities will need to be built, and the demand for urban freight is expected to rise by 140%. In terms of mining sector expansion, coal production in the nation is likely to increase in the upcoming years as the government plans to replace the nation’s captive mining policy in coal and iron ore with an open-bidding one.

By 2024–2025, CIL will increase coal production to 1 billion tonnes.

• In FY 2021–2022, India’s coal production increased by 8.55% to 777.31 MT (provisional), and the same trend is anticipated in FY 2022–2023 as well.
• The power and cement industries are also contributing to growth in the metals and mining sector.
• Given the high growth projections for the residential and commercial building sector, demand for iron and steel is expected to remain strong.
• The government approved an outlay of funds worth Rs. 6,322 crores (US $864.67 million) over five years under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic production of specialty steel
• The Odisha government approved five important industrial projects in July 2021 for a total of Rs. 1.46 lakh crore (US$ 19.60 billion), increasing the capacity of steel production by 27.5 million tonnes.

So overall, the government’s focus and time-bound investment outlay in the upcoming years will benefit the nation’s mining and infrastructure sectors.

As the year has ended, how do you look at the performance for your range of products in terms of sales?

Hyundai is using cutting-edge technology from its headquarters in Korea to innovate make-in-India products. In terms of the users’ equipment life cycle costs, our excavators are very efficient and cost-effective. Hyundai is maintaining its No. 2 position in the 8-50ton class segment of excavators in the domestic market by offering superior quality machines, creative solutions, and the largest dealer network for post-sales support. Hyundai increased excavator volumes by 7% in 2022 over 2021. Hyundai CE India is currently ranked No. 1 in the export of excavators and has held this position since 2017. We expect to sell more than 4300 units overall in 2022, including both domestic and export sales.

Give us an understanding of your company’s performance in the last 3 years?

The last three years have been extremely difficult for the growth of the construction equipment industry as a result of a number of issues, including the Covid pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine War, rising inflation, expensive ocean and land freight, and expensive raw material prices.

In such a volatile environment, the excavator industry in 2020 experienced a sharp decline in volume and de-growth of -17% (YoY).

However, the excavator industry recovered, outperformed in recent years, and expanded at rates of 34% and 10%, respectively, in 2021 and 2022. Despite facing numerous difficulties and intense cost pressure, Hyundai has demonstrated positive volume growth of 32% & 7% for the years 2021 & 2022, respectively. As the fastest-growing excavator company in the CE industry, we rolled out our 35000th excavator in 2022, marking our company’s anniversary. In the 8-50 tonne segment of excavators, Hyundai has maintained its second place ranking for each of the three years from 2020 to 2022. The R215L SMART PLUS crawler excavator took home the 2022 Yellow Dot Award for Innovation.

Hyundai has also entered a new business line by introducing rebuilding and remanufacturing solutions (XL series of excavators) to ensure customer loyalty and profitability.

What is your future strategies at a time when technological disruptions are rapidly defining businesses in the sector? 

Hyundai is investing in a variety of cutting-edge, futuristic technologies that use alternative fuels, such as hydrogen excavators, electric and hybrid excavators, etc. In 2023, we will launch the most advanced Smart Solution called HYUNDAI CONNECT. The customer will be the centre of this creative offering.

The following is a list of some products from Hyundai Connect:

• Hi Site: Site Management Solution
• Hi Assist: Real-time measure and automated control
• Hi Care: Remote control Service
• Hi Detect: Active Safety system with detecting the surrounding object

Hyundai also makes investments in technologies that are specifically designed to meet the needs of various geographical areas both now and in the future. The Smart Plus series, -9 Series, and HX series comprise the current product lineup. The use of mechatronics and smart hydraulics, along with engines that are emission compliant according to the particular market demand and regulation, is the main differentiating factor.

CE manufacturers are now under pressure to manufacture machines, which are not only cost effective, but also comply with the emission norms. What are your views on it?

As for cost-effective machines, the current market environment is very unstable in terms of profitability in domestic sales. This is primarily due to low-cost imports and pricing from low-cost players, rising manufacturing input costs, and depreciating currencies. At Hyundai, we strive to give our customers top-notch products at fair prices by controlling cost pressures through value engineering and R&D initiatives on cost reduction.

Hyundai is hopeful about the Crawler Excavator Emission Standards (which are still being discussed), as they will put products made in India on par with those sold abroad.

We may also need to implement additional fuel filtration systems to prevent fuel contamination, such as adding additional filters, because new-generation engines use more electronics and are more sensitive to fuel quality.

We are developing this new generation of machines, and some excavator models are currently undergoing pilot testing. However, the implementation schedule for the emission norms is unclear, so we are actively looking for the emission schedules that will enable us to align our product roadmap and make future plans.

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