We were a concreting company in the past but we are assuming the role of range of products now

– V. G. SAKTHIKUMAR

Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India

What is your focus for bauma this year?

We have totally more than 40 machines displayed here but 14 of them are new. The 14 new ones are a commitment that on our 25th year in India, we would like to bring in atleast 25 new products. We were a concreting company in the past but we are assuming the role of range of products now where you find we have in earth-moving, material handling, we are in piling and different areas. 2022 was a very good year, we have grown substantially. In 2021 we grew and in 2022 also we grew. So, these 14 new products are based on customer feedback which includes the project owners, the contractors and operators. On that basis, we have made these new products. Some of them are path breaking for us. First, I would like to talk about our shotcrete machine which is an electric machine.

The first machine to become EV in concreting side is this machine. It has a battery of 70 KW p/h replacing 120 hp of engine, so that it can charge itself and move inside the tunnel and then spray concrete with the power line. I would say that it not only brings reduction of exhaust fumes etc. in general, it has also got a specific advantage in tunnel sites. In a tunnel, the exhaust gas stays inside the tunnel.

So once it becomes electric it becomes very safe for the people who are inside the tunnel. From the user point of view, if he is working at a very high altitude where the pressure is low, the temperature is low; you will have a cold start requirement for the engines. Being electric we will not have that problem. This is the second big advantage for this machine. Infact, that machine was dedicated to the nation by Mr. Nitin Gadkari, he was very appreciative of our effort. Hundred percent designed and developed in India and made also in India which means the component level also come from India.

The next product is the self-loading mixture. Considering the safety requirement of the operator, we have made air conditioners, better maneuverability, sitting inside you will have better visibility and we have a better wiper, cabin etc. So, this is the second new development along with streamlined body also. The third one is the new version of our trailer pump, the new style, we want to go to the next generation of machines. These three are displayed in the indoor area. Besides these, outside we have trailer mounted conveyor for conveying concrete which is not pumpable. It is very useful in the dam sites and we have done everything in India. The new machine made in India will cost 50 percent of an imported one.

You mentioned about getting in about more than 25 machines on your 25th anniversary. So how much of that portfolio will be E-machines?

We are conscious and aware of what can work for us in this point of time. As I mentioned, it has got many advantages other than going electric in a tunnel situation. But in a road situation it may not work. For example, smaller machines to convert them to EV is not difficult. If you are to convert a commercial vehicle, the cost goes up by six times. So to do the same function, by somebody should pay six times more. So, it will be a technology demonstration and it will not move. Whereas we expect a lot of business in the E-vehicle that we have launched. It is not just demonstration of technology but we are expecting to do business.

India is a price centric market and you spoke about all the technologies. So how do you maintain the equilibrium between price and quality?

First let me take you to another price equilibrium what we are maintaining. Sardar Patel statue was done with our machines. Parliament house is getting constructed with our machines. High speed trains are getting constructed with our machines. So now at one end, where the PMO monitored projects are there, the focus is very much high.

At the same time, we are also having the self-loading mixture which is making panchayat roads or toilets in some village; so we are balancing that spectrum also. Urban high cost infra projects to panchayat level where small investment mechanization of products, both we are doing. This, we have balanced and also, we have balanced domestic versus exports. So a lot of our machines are getting exported and we are upbeat that in the coming years our business will be even better for the exports.

What is your market share for exports?

I wouldn’t say market share because market share is geography specific. In our total business share, last year it would be 5 percent, it has come down from 10 percent to 5 percent and that is because our turnover has gone up in the domestic variant. But the export has not come down, only the percentage has gone down because the domestic percentage has gone up. Now coming to the price, we have premium products and we also have products which just can meet but one thing is there; the quality of the output of the material that comes out is the same.

Are we seeing private investments coming in or is it still the dependent on government investments more to boost the infrastructure and construction equipment industry?

Our country is structured in such a way that most of the infrastructure projects, apart from the airports, where we visibly see that it belongs to the private company. In other areas, there is a long connection or a chord connected always where you cannot tell that it is hundred percent private. I buy a train and then again, I am dependent on a station which belongs to the government. So you cannot really say that you are out and private hundred percent we are doing it, we can’t say that. So in a way we are interlinked only. I would say that the ecosystem is improving to accommodate more and more private investment into this area. As a country, in the last four years, there are so many areas, what they demonstrated how cheap and easy it is to put a satellite in those places in India than anywhere else and how effective is the machine at a lowest price in India than compared to any other nation.

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