NIP is a big booster to the CE manufacturing industry.

- V G Sakthikumar

Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India

How do you assess the Indian CE market revival in the post-Covid pandemic scenario?

The CE industry did have a rapid recovery after the first pandemic wave and the projects and order booking were picking up until the second wave proved to be dampener. But Schwing Stetter India did anticipate this and had already put in place several revival measures to ensure a seamless supply chain and as predicted Schwing Stetter India had its one of the best turnovers in the year 2021.

Now, as per the projections made by ICEMA - Vision 2025, India is poised to become one of the largest suppliers of construction equipment only next to China in terms of volume.

What is your overview on the ongoing infrastructure development programs in the country? What kind of demand are you experiencing for your products and solutions in these projects?

The government has laid an outlay of $1.4 trillion for NIP which is going take the infrastructure development to the next level and it is a big booster to the CE manufacturing industry. The metro, high-speed rail, and the super expressways forming part of Gati Shatkti will see a lot of demand for concreting equipment such as batching plants, mixers and boom pumps as well in the earth moving sectors there will be huge demand for 20-40 ton class excavators and wheel loaders.

What is the one major challenge faced by the Indian CE market currently? What are your suggestions to iron out this challenge? 

The spiraling steel prices in a one way direction is a cause of concern and certainly impacts the roll out plan for the year 2022. Especially, the CE industry relies heavy on steel fabrication to the extent of 60-70 per cent such as in batching plants, truck mixers and other equipment. Schwing Stetter while being very positive in registering a growth of 53 per cent over the last fiscal, the price impact will be a challenge in customer front. This has prompted our in-house R&D centre to come out with lean and mean machines and to implement smart production processes at our shop floor to offset the deviation.

What are your plans at EXCON this year? Are you launching any products?

Schwing Stetter India has always been an active partner on every edition of EXCON and this edition makes it special as it is the first event happening at the global level, post the devastating pandemic which crippled the entire expo industry. We are eager to showcase our latest range of equipment, enhanced with performance and productivity and to have a direct interaction with our esteemed customer and the prospects arising out of the event.

We will be introducing the higher capacity boom pump in the event on the concreting equipment division. Apart from this, an optimised version of the batching plant will also see the launch at the expo. We will also be rolling out new range (capacity) hydraulic excavator and wheel loaders on construction equipment side.

What are your expectations from the EXCON platform in the new market scenario?

While we had a successful run of our own version of Excon called 'Technovation Fest 2022' at our global manufacturing hub near Chennai, we expect to receive the same reception from our esteemed customers and are eagerly waiting for the show.

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