Driving growth in the slow lane

An in-depth analysis on road making machines in India and growth potential
 The road equipment market in India has gone through sluggishness in the past few years. However, since plans have been made for revival of the road sector, there is ray of hope for the equipment industry which will certainly increase demand for different kind of equipment.
Commenting on the current status of road equipment market in India, Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director and CEO, Wirtgen India observes, “The last year has been very good due to number of road projects been awarded by the new government. Around 3,000 kms of projects have been awarded in 2014-15 and for 2015-16, the target is 5,000 kms. This directly would be a boost to the road equipment manufactures and the scenario looks very positive.”
Ajay Aneja, National Head of Sales, CASE India, says, “Last few years have not been conducive to infrastructure sector including construction equipment. The overall earthmoving and construction equipment market has declined by 15 per cent in 2013 and by 16 per cent in 2014.”
Now the government has planned to award road projects worth Rs 5 lakh crore in road sector. The road ministry targets to expedite the construction of national highways in India. The revival in the sector will demand technology innovation.
Commenting on this aspect Sanjay Wadnerkar, Vice President, LiuGong India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Road equipment market has shown revival in recent years and contracting firms are adding better technology products with higher degree of automation. Domestic manufacturers and international players are offering range of products like compactors, graders, paver, miller, concrete mixer and hot mix plants etc. These are with different capacities, application based attachments and attractive schemes to adopt the technologies.”
Mr Aneja opines, “All steps would be taken to develop new technologies and equipment, so as to bring down the cost of construction and improving the quality of road infrastructure. This will be bring growth in the in the road construction equipment segment and also encourage the manufactures to launch competitive products in the Indian market.”
Product innovationFocus on building new roads and upkeep of the existing road network will stimulate demand for different kinds of equipment. To cater to the need of the clients, latest equipment have been introduced in the market by the market leaders.
There are technological advancements taking place globally in order to make machine more efficient. Such as lock up clutches for motor graders and front end loaders. This helps in bypassing the torques converter at higher turbine speeds. Auto idle engine shut off during phases of utilisation.
CASE introduced the new EX Series of Loader Backhoes in 76, 86, 96 HP as well as a new Soil Compactor 1107 DX. The products offer intelligent compaction, turbochargers in engines, intelligent hybrid hydraulic regenerative systems, fuel efficient technology, GPS systems in the equipment which do provide benefit to customers.
Wirtgen Group offers a 360-degree solution for road building as well as road rehabilitation. Wirtgen Group has an extensive product portfolio in the line of road construction equipment. It offers Wirtgen range of milling machines, slipform pavers, soil stabilisers and recyclers and surface miners. The group also has Vogele range of asphalt pavers both wheeled and tracked and special equipment for paving; Hamm range of compactors – tandem and soil and pneumatic tyred rollers; and Kleemann range of crushing and screening plants.
Similarly Caterpillar offers a wide range of road building equipment to meet customers’ needs. It offers motor graders and excavators to carry out applications from small road construction and site development through to larger expressway construction up to demanding mining haul road construction and maintenance works. Caterpillar also offers Cat Connect Solutions – a technological offering is available to customers. Ramesh Tipirneni, Country Manager, Caterpillar India Pvt. Ltd. is quite satisfied with the way the customers look at Cat equipment for their quality, reliability, productivity and efficiency. He says, “It is the after-sales support and service provided by Caterpillar dealers that create the value proposition associated with Cat products.”
Standardising equipmentIn this competitive market every company would like to provide standardised quality products for their customers. Having international standardised products will certainly add value to the product as well as to the company’s stake which is again a plus point in attracting the customer.
When asked about the technology and machines used in India meet global standards or not experts have different views to share. Commenting on this, Mr Wadnerkar, said, “We have good manufacturing and supplier base. The absorption of technology by automotive suppliers is now extending the same to road construction equipment too. Many of the global players have set-up their subsidiaries in India due to market size, skills and capabilities.”
Rapid development in the technology has also changed the way of work. Mr Tipirneni says, “Today’s technologies can automatically gather the information our customers need to make smart decisions about their equipment. Technologies built into today’s construction equipment can tell where machines are, how much fuel they’re burning, when they need service and more. That data is transmitted directly to our customers’ offices via web-based systems like VisionLink, giving them timely, useful information that helps them make decisions faster, without guesswork.”
“CASE offers the most advanced technological products in India which are suited to the basic Indian requirements of high fuel efficiency and productivity. This coupled with minimalistic maintenance intervention in CASE machines, be it from regular maintenance point of view or longer oil change periods, makes them absolutely trouble free. All of these on a holistic scale of owning and operating cost of the CASE machines, make them the highest value for money offering in the Indian CE market space and makes CASE the preferred choice,” Mr Aneja claims. “CASE product is designed incorporating the four main criteria viz. operator comfort, productivity, serviceability and low operating costs.”
There has been a lot of upgradations in road construction equipment, specially the asphalt pavers and there are continuous innovations in the features of machines, to improve productivity, ensure right quality etc. Speaking on the standard of the product, Mr Palagiri, says, “In India, we offer the same class of machines as we offer in the global market and for most of these technically advanced machines, they are well accepted in India. In the field of road building and road rehabilitation machines, we are not only the global market leader, but we are also the global innovator for all these products.”
Targeting super highwaysHaving huge road network and highways will bring in the connectivity and network but also save travel time and fuel as well. The government is expected to start working on 10 national express highways which are of world-class.
India has the second largest road network in the world with about 33 lakh Km of road network. Out of this about 2.5 lakh km is in the form of national and state highways which are capable to handle large volumes at high speed. Mr Aneja thinks that India can develop better highways in future. He says, “We have a lot of room to grow but we have created this network using machines mostly made in India. OEMs will diversify their offering with larger machines going ahead with pace of development in this sector but being a developing nation building roads at optimum cost not compromising on quality is important to keep pace with our nations growth target.”
Citing examples from the past about highway development in India, Mr Wadnerkar shares, “India is not far-off in adaptation of modern machines and technology. We have good examples from past for the high quality expressways in India. The high speed in transportation is depending on the roads and highway layouts (as far as possible it should be straight), the quality of vehicles plying on roads, safety features used in vehicles etc. Growing economy also needs the speed in implementation and magnitude of work which will make high speed transportation feasible and affordable.”
The Wirtgen Slipform Pavers have built expressways in the country, such as Mumbai-Pune expressway, Yamuna Expressway, Delhi Airport runway etc. The machines are capable of building excellent quality of roads, are technically superior and also innovative. “In the Indian market we have introduced new technologies like cold milling and cold recycling and milling is now reasonably well accepted in the Indian market and is being used for more and more Highway projects. These are Green technologies where almost 100 per cent reuse of aggregates is done,” Mr Palgiri explained.
Potholes free IndiaPothole is the huge problem in India. Expert gives their views on, how India can be pothole free? Also what solution the companies are providing to reduce clear the potholes. Mr Aneja suggested some solutions for potholes free road. He says, “Tandem asphalt compactors with smooth drums at front and back are used for this application. Case 752 is a right fit with its ease of transport, easy manoeuvrability and high forces. Customers agree as it is a market leader in this product segment. Over a period of time all asphalt roads will undergo wear and tear but never the less maintenance of these at the right time will make this problem less noticeable.”Mr Wadnerkar thinks that occurrence of potholes are result of materials used. He says, “Potholes are result of material used, technology adopted then, weather conditions and surface preparation to lay down good quality roads. We have world class runways for the airports we have Mumbai-Ahmadabad, Mumbai-Pune express way, Delhi-Agra expressway as live examples of sustenance by proper maintenance, used of good technology material and equipment.”
Market potentialComparing last two years the road construction equipment sale has shown some improvements. The government has already announced many ambitious projects such as smart cities, AMRUT, Pradhan Mantri Sadak Yojana, PPP on large-scale road connectivity, industrial corridors etc. The country’s roads and bridges infrastructure, which was valued at $ 6.9 billion in 2009, is expected to touch $ 19.2 billion by 2017.
On this note, Mr Aneja says, “Each segment in the road sector has potential to grow 20 per cent plus per annum, which means we can expect the industry size to almost double by the end of the year 2020. We are also likely to witness technologically superior equipment on offer from different manufacturers.”
Expressing optimism on the future market potential Mr Wadnerkar says, “The future looks to be brighter with the plans. The execution of ambitious plans in effective manner can bring the good future to road construction machinery business.”
About the road equipment market and its potential, Mr Tipirneni, finds, “We anticipate that better economic growth should result in an improvement in sales in the equipment market in India. The growth will vary in terms of the industries, but the build-out of infrastructure that must occur as the country urbanises is going to provide a large platform for growth. We believe that Caterpillar and its dealers are in a good position to help meet this demand. Also, with the government’s focus on building smart cities and modernisation of smaller cities, it provides a greater potential for the equipment market.” ____________________
The execution of ambitious plans in effective manner can bring the good future to road construction machinery business.
Sanjay Wadnerkar, Vice President, LiuGong India_________________________
All steps would be taken to develop new technologies and equipment, so as to bring down the cost of construction and improving the quality of road infrastructure.
Ajay Aneja, National Head, Sales, CASE India_______________________-
In the field of road building and road rehabilitation machines, we are not only the global market leader, but we are also the global innovator for all these products.
Ramesh Palagiri, Managing Director and CEO, Wirtgen India_________________________
We anticipate that better economic growth should result in an improvement in sales in the equipment market in India.
Ramesh Tipirneni, Country Manager, Caterpillar India_____________________________

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