Boom pumps are finding a significant space in the RMC sector like never before.

V G Sakthikumar

 Chairman & Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India

What is the current demand-supply scenario of concrete equipment viz, batching plants, concrete pumps, concrete pavers, transit mixers and others?

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 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.

How is the buying trend of customers in terms of capacity and features? What are the new technologies offered in your equipment range?

Schwing Stetter India's product range consists of fine machinery with record-breaking features that makes us a top brand in the CE industry. Our concreting machine range consists of self-loading mixers, truck mixers, batching plants, and concrete pumps and our construction machine range consists of piling rigs, excavators, wheel loaders, truck cranes, crawler cranes. Our machines are consistent performers in the construction and concreting arena, which has facilitated our ability to retain our customers who continue to prefer SCHWING products to be deployed in any upcoming or ongoing projects.

We have recently added 14 new products to the concreting and construction equipment range. Our new launches are packed with features like IoT, Cloud data integration, increased ergonomics, and much more. SCHWING is also an exporter of product designs with the support of our design department inducted into our R&D wing. With experienced professionals working round-the-clock on various projects, we are always in the process of developing customised and updated machines to the market in the future as we have done in the past.

How are you supporting the customers in terms of skill development in operation and maintenance of the concrete plants and equipment?

Schwing Stetter India through its operator training school affiliated with NSDC and IESC has been constantly upgrading the technology skill level of its customer personnel through dedicated training camps. The latest technologies such as telematics, remote access for equipment troubleshooting is part of the training curriculum. Schwing Stetter has dedicated customer training centres in Chennai and in our new global manufacturing hub at Cheyyar.

What are the initiatives from the company towards supporting customers in equipment finance?

We have multiple financial collaborations with all of the major financiers and financial organizations in India to offer support for our customers. We also provide many schemes during festivals and auspicious days as the purchase trend of our machinery increases during those times. SCHWING Stetter India also maintains a streamlined business association with the banks so that our customers do not face any hurdles during the purchase our machines.

How are you making a difference in providing aftermarket services to your customers?

Schwing Stetter India have 27 offices and nine service centres in India with more than 500 service and spares teams. We also have specially dedicated team support in special projects such as HSR, CMRL, etc to provide quick support to customer which will significantly reduce the breakdown time. With a wide network of pan-Indian service centres and branches, we hold and store all wearable and consumable spares distributed in the nearest location of the machines and major components so that the customer can avail our services and parts promptly. There is a specialist team of more than 40 members in India providing special support and training to the customers on an all-India level.

Schwing Stetter India's focus is on Cluster Service activity at major potential dedicated projects in line to XCMG and SSIPL products.

How do you visualise the demand trend for concrete equipment in the coming years?

The market is growing at a rate of 17-20% across all categories of concrete equipment and the subsiding pandemic have now instilled confidence among the stakeholders which can be seen in the rising order booking presently. Due to the huge investment plan in the infrastructure development by the government such as NIP, the demand for enormous RMC requirement has made the concrete business stakeholders to shift to higher capacity products of horizontal batching plants such as H1.25 J, higher capacity pumps such as 1807 RMC, SP2809 etc. For transportation, the transit mixers have shifted from 6 cu m capacity to 7 cu m and 8 cu m as standard procurement. Boom pumps with higher reach such as S36 and S47 are popular.

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