Technology is bringing a significant change at every touch-point wherein mining equipment is involved.
Partha Mookherjee Head Mining Equipment Business, Larsen & Toubro Mining is one of the key sectors which contributes immensely for infrastructure and helps develop economies. What do you think is the current
– Partha Mookherjee
Head – Mining Equipment Business, Larsen & Toubro
Mining is one of the key sectors which contributes immensely for infrastructure and helps develop economies. What do you think is the current market for mining equipment in India?
A fast-growing economy like India has a huge appetite for minerals and metals to fuel its infrastructure needs. In this regard, India is blessed with huge reserves of major minerals and metals like Coal, Limestone, Iron Ore, Bauxite and Zinc sufficient to meet its demand on a sustained basis. Thus, the onus is purely on us, to ensure that Indian Mining Industry grows in a responsible manner, considering the interest of all stakeholders.
The current Mining Equipment market size in India (as per Komatsu’s classification) was stagnant at 600 ~ 625 units per year, for the last few years. However, in the current year, we are witnessing a healthy demand and expect the market to grow by appx 15%. The tailwinds for different demand drivers are expected to ensure that such a growth continues at least for the next few years.
Which equipment do you think are the demand drivers in the mining sector and how geared up are you to meet this demand surge?
Generally, for opencast mines, Dump Trucks constitute around two-thirds of the total fleet of mining equipment. Within the Dump Truck space, 100 Ton and 60 Ton Dump Trucks are the most prominent sizes, preferred in Indian Mining Sector. Komatsu manufactures both these class of Dump Trucks at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility near Chennai. This manufacturing facility primarily caters to Indian requirement and it demonstrates Komatsu’s commitment to India’s increasing demand for quality Mining Equipment.
Other prominent equipment used in opencast mines are the loading tools (Hydraulic Equipment, Wheel Loader etc) and support equipment (Dozer, Motor Grader etc). Such requirements are duly supplied from Komatsu’s overseas manufacturing units located at Japan, Germany etc.
India is a focus country for Komatsu and it is fully committed to serve its increasing demand for Mining Equipment.
Technologies are changing mining industry’s future. What are the latest technological trends in your range of mining equipment?
Technology is bringing a significant change at every touch-point wherein mining equipment is involved. The benefits of technology are all encompassing from pre-sales to post-sales activities.
Selection of optimum size and fleet of mining equipment is the first step towards making the mining project, a successful one. We use production simulation software, which can replicate the profile and challenges of the actual mine site. This helps in arriving at a realistic production and fuel consumption estimates and in calculating the fleet size for different loading-hauling tool combinations
After the supply of equipment, it is essential that it is not misused. We use different tools to access the operator’s practices on real-time basis, so that corrective steps can be suggested. Similarly, haul-road profiling and segment-wise fuel consumption study gives vital insight on improvement of productivity.
Such technological interventions vide application engineering tools and continuous improvement programmes, has immensely benefited our customers in their ultimate objective of getting an optimum Rs/tonne of mineral mined.
What are the key maintenance practices to be followed for the upkeep of mining equipment?
Mining equipment from global leaders like Komatsu have high reliability and ruggedness, inbuilt as part of its cutting-edge design and manufacturing processes. Still, these equipment need care and professional maintenance. Use of genuine parts (to be bought only from manufacturer’s authorized distributor), timely change / refill of consumables, following preventive maintenance practices and consulting only the authorized distributor for regular / breakdown repairs are some of the basic steps to be religiously followed by the equipment owner. If such upkeep practices are religiously followed, customer is generally rewarded with good equipment health and an extended life!
What are the challenges as a major player you face and what are your suggestions to iron out these challenges in the mining equipment space?
Minerals and metals are the critical building blocks, which is at the core of any infrastructure project. Hence, the equipment which helps in producing the same, are also an integral part of the entire infrastructure value-chain. However, the purchasers of such equipment are generally left to themselves for arranging finance facility. I feel that the complete range of mining equipment should qualify for long-term priority-sector lending from Banks and NBFCs. This will encourage the customers to invest in good quality mining equipment, thereby ensuring mining of minerals and metals, in a safe and cost-effective manner.
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