Earthmoving and construction equipment maker JCB India is buoyant about the road and highway projects which are picking up at a breakneck pace for the last few months. The Indian arm of the Rocester, Staffordshire-based-firm, which is already selling backhoes, excavators and other equipment, recently launched its products, namely, Telehandlers, Skid Steer Loaders and Super Loaders, to gain a foothold in the material handling segment. India is already the biggest market for the British manufacturer of heavy industrial and agricultural vehicles in terms of volumes and is poised to be one of its biggest wealth churners by 2020.
Mr. Jasmeet Singh, Head – Corporate Communications & External Affairs at JCB India Ltd., told MOTORINDIA: “The economic slowdown was actually an opportunity for us to expand our volumes and we established a new facility in Jaipur during that time. Now, with infrastructure investments set to go up manifold, demand for construction equipment will rise further. We are already witnessing an uptick in volumes as there has been a positive year-on-year growth for the last six months after almost three-four years of successive deceleration. Roads and highways have already led the way to a recovery in terms of unclogging of projects that were stuck and the new projects that were awarded.”
However, he added: “The (thrust on) roads (infrastructure) will not be enough. We need at least more sectors to fire up to gain momentum, and these could be railways, waterways, irrigation projects and urban rejuvenation, which includes the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Smart Cities, Ports, Bharatmala, etc. If these sectors grow, they will drive construction activities and that’s what drives manufacturing.”
According to reports, the construction equipment industry revenues are estimated to reach $22.7 billion by 2020 from $6.5 billion in FY14. Sale of construction equipment is expected to grow to 96,730 units by 2018 from 60,655 units in FY14. JCB India, which clocked Rs. 5,500 crores in sales last year, is among the biggest local manufacturers in the country and exports to over 60 countries around the world.
When asked to shed some light on the technological breakthroughs that will give JCB an edge over its peers, Mr. Singh stated: “We have developed a technology called ‘LiveLink’, which is essentially a telematics technology or a blackbox machine that currently relays all the information through relays to a mobile network’s server and is available on your smartphone in seven or eight different languages. This is used for multiple purposes like Geofencing (alerts), Location Tracking, Time Fencing, etc. This is the most exciting technology that we have brought in, and we were the first ones to do it on that scale. More than 20,000 JCB machines in the market are currently using LiveLink technology.”
Talking about its long-term goals, Mr. Singh maintained: “We will continuously be focusing on new products and variants, after-sales services and replacements, and driver training rather than just selling machines. We want to be as close to the customers by adopting an ear-to-the-ground approach. We would like to offer products to our customers which they like and want. We will also ensure that the technology and solutions that we are offering have to be appropriate, versatile and reliable, and enrich the job profile and working conditions of our customers.”