LOADED UP

The Wheel Loader market, especially for higher capacity, is expected to  grow further as the turnaround time is becoming critical in material handling applications.

The turnaround time is becoming quite critical when it comes to material handling whether in railways, ports or quarries; the faster it is, the better the productivity.  As per the industry input the trend is that informed clients in quarries have started to shift to wheel loaders from cranes as the turnaround has improved. Productivity improvement is very high from high capacity wheel loaders. In port sector also the requirement for larger wheel loaders is increasing. Especially, the government’s move to increase the coal production to one plus billion tonne will spur the demand for larger capacity wheel loaders.

Says Sandeep Singh, Managing Director, Tata Hitachi, “Today, customers are looking for even higher production from their loaders while trying to keep the costs down. As the cost of diesel is going up, a fuel-efficient loader is on top of the mind for the customer. Though the owning cost is a primary concern for the first-time buyers, the loader fleet owners and long-time users are ready to pay a premium for the feature loaded and fuel – efficient loader.” Speaking about the market trends Singh says, “The market for wheel loaders is likely to grow on the background of the need for specialized equipments. Customers upgrading from multi-purpose machines to wheel loaders will form bulk of the volume, coupled with increased activities of mining and port. In applications like mining, cement and port going to bigger class of equipment is an advantage as the customer gets higher production through lesser number of machines. Thereby reducing overhead and life cycle cost of his whole fleet of equipment; ensuring better return. This can become a game changer for industry.”

The size of the wheel loader in an application would depend on the quantum and rate of material to be handled.  Generally, wheel loaders of over 200 hp (over 5 MT payload) are more in demand from the mining and port sectors.  However, a large number of 100-150 horsepower (3 MT payload) machines are also used in the above applications.  Wheeled loaders account for around 4 per cent of the sales of construction equipment. The 100-150 horsepower (3 MT payload) category of wheel loaders still accounts for over 75 per cent of the total demand, while larger machines account for 18-20 per cent.  For roads and ports, predominantly, demand is for 3 to 5T size class (100 – 200 hp) wheel loaders. Mining involves a lot more machine utilization and material handling; 5 to 10T size class (200 – 600 hp) machines are required.

The shift towards larger machines is already visible. In excavators segment for example, there is lot of demand coming from 22T and above category as the size of infrastructure projects is getting larger which makes it imperative for matching larger capacity loaders. As the infrastructure projects size is becoming larger the amount of aggregate required in one go is increasing. It warrants the demand for larger equipment to match the demand for larger haulage equipment. So matching of equipment such as wheel loader with that of haulage equipment like loader truck is very important. This will surely have its impact on the loader market.  “We are seeing a shift towards higher capacity wheel loaders. Previously in 2018, smaller capacity wheel loaders in the 3T range were popular. But in recent times, the 4T and 5T range are becoming increasingly popular in India, says Surat Mehta, Head, SDLG India.   

Highly optimised loading cycle and better volumes, mobility and flexibility – these are some of the parameters the customer looks into when it comes to wheel loaders. Strong structural built, exceptional load carrying capacity with ability of loading and unloading material continuously, have become critical. Plenty are the features offered by the OEMs in the wheel loader segment.

Major vendors have been successfully leveraging the benefits of digital platforms to enhance the customer experience. For example, JCB India during the bauma Conexpo India launched the intelli’gent series of machines which are packed with intelli’ technologies all having been designed keeping the customer in mind.

“The JCB455ZX wheeled loader equipped with the Intelli-Load helps in real time monitoring of individual weight of the loaded bucket, total accumulated weight, and number of loaded bucket.  The Intelli-Load is integrated with Livelink, our advanced telematics technology, which enables predictive maintenance, location and monitoring to achieve high uptime of the wheel loader,” says Jasmeet Sing, Head, Corporate Communications, JCB India. He adds, “An industry first feature, this enables transmission of the monitored values to a server for analytics and report generation. Further through JCB’s mobile applications such as Smart Serve, and the JCB Genuine Parts Mobile application, we are revolutionising the way our dealers, customers, and JCB communicate in real time, thus aiming for and achieving higher equipment uptime through world class product support.

Another example is the Payload Control System (PCS) what Caterpillar offers that helps the operator view load weights in real time on the in-cab monitor, reducing the risks of overloading, saving time and improving efficiency. Having the ability to track payload during each pass will enable the customer to manage productivity on jobsites in a tangible and accurate manner. Then, optimizing loading cycles, better volume estimates and managing assets based on production, all help reduce operating costs while improving output.

Speaking about the market size
V. G. Sakthikumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India had this to say. “Current overall demand – supply scenario for wheel loaders from different verticals such as mining, general construction, material handling in quarries and in ports are 3000 loaders with a 40 percent, Year on Year growth.”

The roads and highways have already brought a fresh lease of life to the equipment sector. This is expected to energize the aggregate market where wheel loader plays an important role.  Indian port infrastructure is poised for a steady growth, and mining sector is also expected to pick up momentum.  The industry is confident of a surge in demand and the pace gathered in many sectors augurs well for the whole construction equipment sector. Yes, the wheels, fully loaded are on the move.`

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