Make in India effort appreciated by customers
Vivek Hajela, General Manager & Head- Construction Equipment Business, Larsen & Toubro Limited, puts forth the factors that will drive the growth of the wheel loader market in addition to the trends and development witnessed in the wheel loader category.
Vivek Hajela, General Manager & Head- Construction Equipment Business, Larsen & Toubro Limited, puts forth the factors that will drive the growth of the wheel loader market in addition to the trends and development witnessed in the wheel loader category. Excerpts…
Tell us about the key developments and trends being witnessed in the wheel loader market.
We expect the future to focus a lot on infrastructure development, urbanisation and capacity addition in the areas of Power, Steel, Cement etc to aid the growth. This would mean tremendous growth opportunities in the areas of mining, mineral processing and material handling at various stages. It would also necessarily include imports of minerals through our ports. Thus, we expect blue metal aggregates, coal, stevedoring, general construction and raw material handling in process industry to be the key drivers.
How are you preparing for the next level emission regulations?
The next level emission norms Bharat Stage IV for construction equipment vehicles would be effective from Oct’ 2020. While we are closely working with Engine OEMs, the sudden lockdown due to COVID crisis has become a serious impediment to meet the deadline. The engines and machines were under various stages of testing and trials when lockdown was declared. These efforts will have to restart after the lockdown is completely lifted. Going forward, we expect a rush to get the equipment and engines certified from the authorised agencies such as ARAI. Hence, it will be extremely difficult to meet the deadline and we hope authorities would appreciate the industry concern and extend the deadline.
What was the volume of wheel loaders sold in 2019-2020? What were the factors that enabled you to achieve the same?
The total Wheel Loader demand for 3-3.5 T class was approximately 1900 units in FY20. Over the last fiscal, we have been able to improve our market share by 100 bps. Our Wheel Loader model L&T 9020 is well accepted and performing very well in all applications. This is supported by our best-in-class after sales support. Customers also appreciate our Make in India effort. We expect to get further boost with the Central Government pushing for local manufacturing and indigenous development. Other factors contributing to our strong performance were consolidation of market share in some of the markets in Southern India, improvement in business from exports market, improved order pipeline from coal and steel companies. Also, there has been addition of new customers in the general construction segment.
What is your growth target for the forthcoming year for 2020-21?
We are optimistic that demand will revive during H2 of FY2021 based on the stimulus package announced of GOI. However, overall, we expect a contraction in demand. Being 100% “Make in India” product, we expect least disruption in terms of the supply chain issues being faced by global players. Our factory has already resumed production. With a strong growth momentum in place for the past 3 years and favourable conditions for being a local product, we expect to further grow our market share by 1-2% in FY2021.
Tell us about the outlook of the wheel loader segment.
We find that the demand for 3-3.5T payload Wheel loader grew at a healthy rate of 28%, which constituted for less than 80% of the wheel loader demand. The 5T class wheel loader finds applications with large mining and material handling contractors especially in coal mines. We expect this trend to continue with 3-3.5T class of wheel loader growing at healthy pace in the near future, alongside 5T will find its space and grow in certain segments and applications. Since the pandemic attack, we are unsure about the market conditions and the fallout.
Mission ‘Make In India’The products are manufactured by L&T Construction Equipment Limited as part of the Make in India mission. These are designed and developed by the Product Development Centre in Coimbatore taking care of the requirements of Indian customers for higher productivity, lower fuel consumption, lower cost of operation and maintenance, ease of operation and operator safety. The dedicated design team collects feedback from the field and offers solutions for different applications, providing customer centric solutions as against standard solutions. L&T Wheel Loaders provide great value in terms of customised solutions as per the application and ability to support customers throughout the lifecycle of the products across the country for service and parts. |
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