The CE markets in Europe are staring at the rise of recession trends and the Indian market is going strong

– V. G. SAKTHIKUMAR

Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India

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

While the buzz word of Industry 4.0 is trending everywhere in the manufacturing industry, people have already started to think about Industry 5.0 where man and machine are collaborated to the work task. In the construction equipment manufacturing industry, the communication, the data flow, real time metrices between the shop floor and the management dashboard have become absolute real time. Any call related to the shop floor activity starting from raw material requirement to the finished good declaration in an ERP are integrated to the kiosk being accessed by the worker at the shop floor. In Schwing Stetter’s Global manufacturing hub, we have currently installed Andon set up inside the production shop floor. The impact of Smart tech Integration is that tablets & kiosks have replaced paper documentation at the shop floor for real time status and traceability. The data flow in the manufacturing process has taken to expressway with the digital format; they enable the manufacturer to deliver the goods and keep the customer track and get update on their delivery schedule.

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

India has taken a bright spot in the global stage of the manufacturing sector. The CE markets in Europe are staring at the rise of recession trends and the Indian market is going strong. The Indian market has good opportunities in domestic and international verticals and other markets are looking for collaboration positions to align with the growth of the Indian market to receive the complete advantage of the positive trend taking place in the economy. Concrete Equipment Market Continues to grow with promising YoY growth predictions and expansive investment plans under the schemes from National Infrastructure Pipeline program from the Government. The sanctioning of multiple infra projects, metro rail, high-speed rail projects and expressway projects have created an immense demand drive in the CE market and the increased connectivity brought by the completion of these projects also brings promise more large scale infra projects. Regarding the emerging trends in the field, Boom pumps are finding a significant space in the RMC sector, like never before due to its one-man operation, thereby deleting excess manpower. Due to the increased demand for the ready-mix concrete and due to huge influx of Projects awarded by the Govt, clients are opting for higher output Batching plants, pumps, and mixers rather than equipment with smaller capacity.

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

Last year (In 2021) Schwing Stetter India witnessed its highest turnover since its stint in India, notwithstanding the pandemic and global Slow down. But the Steep hike in the Steel prices and other allied cost increases are a worry which has been to an extend been addressed thru lean manufacturing process, JIT practices and Digitalization of After sales support network such as E-Commerce platform for Customers. We expect our turnover to increase by 53 % this year based on the sales projection, and the due to increase in the product portfolio to the Schwing Stetter Stable. Close to 28 dealers have been appointed pan India to reach this target and we have crossed this target as of December 2022.

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

Schwing Stetter always was close to the customer, using the support of technology, we have taken innovative paths like supporting the customers virtually, having technical discussions and arrive at total concrete solutions without much of human involvement. This is keeping us busy at factory, our after sales support has done similar service where we have serviced the customer via video calls for immediate solutions apart from giving them regular service. This has helped us to keep happy of our existing clientele and as a word of mouth we have acquired good number of new customers also.

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?

Schwing Stetter India has always been a frontrunner in innovation, and we always bring out products which are compliant to World standards and regulations, while conforming to the BS VI emission norms was a challenge. We have planned our roll-out of equipment methodically and hence we are on the right path in releasing the best solutions for the CE customers.

What are the potential new areas for expansion and proposed new launches for the year 2023?

Schwing Stetter has plans to extend the existing product range with new innovations from the in-house R&D developed products. We will be launching a new fleet of products in the upcoming BC India.

What are the challenges that you face and what are your suggestions to further ease a business-friendly climate?

There are certain sectors in the construction industry where electrical and hybrid systems can be a part of the construction equipment but there lie many challenges such as optimum battery available in mass quantity, power to weight ratio calculations, price constraints, mass producing constraints, technology know-how transfer from the peers. Schwing Stetter is continuously innovating, and we are looking to bring out a fully built electrical version of our shotcreting pump very soon. When this EV version is launched, it will remove the effects of operating fuel based vehicle in tunnels. Our global manufacturing facility in Chennai was built to offer a wide range of machines and equipment locally as well as globally. With this facility the supply chain management has become efficient due to the proximity of the various vendors and the challenges faced earlier has become redundant. The addition of GmH to our production facilities has provided us with the answers to all challenges related to our industry while also adding to our production capacity and our endeavour to create a industry 4.0 inducted manufacturing facility.

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