Rapid urbanisation and infrastructure activities will help spur the Indian construction equipment market beyond $4.7 billion by 2025.
Safar Mohammad Khan General Manager – HDD, Apollo Techno Industries The economy is on the slow growth path. What will be the impact of this on the construction equipment market? The outlook 2022
– Safar Mohammad Khan
General Manager – HDD, Apollo Techno Industries
The economy is on the slow growth path. What will be the impact of this on the construction equipment market?
The outlook 2022 for construction industry looks positive. Hence overall market of construction-related equipment will be higher and is going to contribute more to GDP and economy.
The outlook on India’s construction equipment sector is optimistic since the country’s needs for infrastructure will continue to grow massively even in the adverse situation of Omicron (Covid 19)and stiff government policies. A clear vision, purpose-driven governance and policies are required from the Government of India to build around growth in equipment manufacturing which may be more than double in the next five years if it is driven properly by keeping all the environmental and policy-related factors in near future.
Rapid urbanisation and infrastructure activities will help spur the Indian construction equipment market beyond $4.7 billion by 2025. Higher budgetary allocations to roads, metro rails, gas pipeline infrastructure, flyovers and commercial complexes will further boost the market over the next few years.
Apollo has already developed piling rigs, trencher and HDD machines to build the Indian infrastructure and economy too. Although there are some challenges, we have faced in supplychain management, transportation and overseas procurement, Covid 19(Omicron), we keep ourselves positive to get rid of all those challenges. As a lot of infrastructure is coming up including roads, highways, gas pipeline infrastructure, bridges, metros etc, construction equipment market will be high even in 2022 and that could be double by 2025.
What do you think is the demand drivers for construction equipment and how geared up are you to meet this demand surge?
The outlook on India’s construction equipment sector is optimistic since the country’s needs for infrastructure will continue to grow massively in near future.
CE industry could grow 30% in 2022 as a lot of infrastructure including CGD gas pipeline projects are much in inflows where HDD machines are required in large numbers. More than 50% growth could be seen in Indian market to develop gas pipeline infrastructure in the upcoming times, which will last for next 6-7 years with continuous growth. Equipment industry is likely to be on growth trajectory till 2025.
High city gas distribution project which has come another 61 gas(11thbidding) across India could be one of the key drivers to boost such equipment. Infra projects like metro, road, national highway and bridges projects will be key drivers in the growth of construction equipment industry.
We are still trying to get rid of some of the major challenges what we are facing specially in the supply chain management, the overseas procurement systems, skilled manpower etc. Demand of the maxi rigs/big size HDD machines are going up for the cross-country projects. We intent to bridge the gap between demand & supply on time. Mud pump and rock tools option should be more open in Indian market. The scope for manufacturing such tools may come into race as these are currently imported either from China or European market.
How advanced have you been in digitalising your processes and product portfolio to ensure a better market share?
Our entire factory works on SAP. We also follow all the advanced manufacturing techniques at plant. Even products are equipped with digital control systems (electronic/IoT/AI, data analysis model kept on the clouds). Digitisation, which comes under the umbrella of Industry 4.0, is increasingly being adopted by us for HDD, trencher and piling machines. Manufacturing processes have taken place on the digital platform. Technical support from the workshop end is provided through digital platform. Services and the critical breakdown have been resolved digitally adopting IoT and AI. We as a leading manufacturer, offer IoT-enabled equipment helping us a good gain in the market share and attracting new customers in India and overseas.
Digitisation in the industrial machinery has become a key factor, helping manufacturers like us to survive the intense competition and eroding price margins. Digitisation has been taken place in all our equipment like trencher, piling machines and HDD machines too.
What are your initiatives in skilling up people, especially in this post-pandemic scenario?
We provide the safety aided training at workshop and that is monitored by our safety executive. We provide vocational education, technical training, and we also approach some technical training Institutes to get better productivity, minimum errors and less waste, effective employment engagement and retention, communication and teamwork, process improvement and to nurture the problem-solving skills.
What are the challenges you face as a major player and what are your suggestions to iron out those challenges?
We are India’s first HDD machine manufacturer (OEM).As a major player, we are facing the material procurement challenges (specially from the USA and Europe), supply chain management problems, cost-related issues, removal of credit benefits, transportation etc.
We still seek some progressive government policies (incentive schemes) to boost the Indian manufacturing entities, especially in heavy machinery industry.
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