Schwing Stetter India is the name that needs no introduction in the construction equipment (CE) sector. The company has been setting new standards in concreting equipment over the years. Schwing Stetter India’s stall is once again expected to be the cynosure of all eyes in the Excon 2017 trade show.
The list of products that the company has launched this year includes: Schwing Stationary Concrete Pump SP 1015 D/HD, Schwing Stationary Concrete Pump SP 1330 D, Stetter Batching Plant M3, Gomaco Concrete Paver GP 2800, Gomaco Concrete Paver with Independent Dowel Bar Insertor, XCMG Crawler Crane XGC 85, XCMG Cold Milling Machine XM1003, XCMG Motor Grader GR 1605, XCMG Rotary Drilling Rig XR (180/220) D, SCHWING – XCMG Tower Crane XT 335 (8020-16), XCMG Aerial Work Platform GTJZ1012, GTJZ1212, GTBZ18A1, GTBZ22S, XCMG Horizontal Directional Drilling XZ (200/320) D.
The Indian economy has been passing through a topsy-turvy phase off late, in the aftermath of policy interventions such as demonetization and GST. In such a scenario how has been 2017 for Schwing Stetter India? Replying to this question, Mr. V.G. Sakthi Kumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter Sales and Services Private Ltd., pointed out that demonetization did not have any impact on the company’s business as its business belongs to a clean economy where the construction companies and contractors majorly procure the machines through bank financiers. “However, during the transition of VAT to GST regime we had hiccoughs with many queries raised by customers and it could not be answered immediately due to the understanding of GST related issue,” Mr. Kumar mentioned.
“As construction equipment manufacturers, we want our products rate to be rationalized as our products are directly going for the infrastructure building in the country. Our order booking remained healthy even though customers postponed taking delivery of the machines due to GST related issues. For the future, we are hopeful GST will bring more customers investing in infrastructure machineries of the future”, he observed.
Highlighting the other products that the company is displaying, Mr. Kumar stated that recently with a lot of emphasize on the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Schwing Stetter India has launched its exclusive high capacity, high volume “Sludge Pumps and Muck Pumps”. Schwing’s pump technology provides turnkey solutions for transport and storage of sludge’s as well as materials with high solid content.
Going into further details, Mr. Kumar said: “Our products are highly advantageous where drainage water can be filtered into a sludge that is converted to bio organizers – fit for direct consumption and our Tower Crane has synergy with our existing product range. We foresee the demand for Aerial Work Platforms substantially in the coming years because of many high-rise buildings coming up. As mentioned earlier, we are always in discussion with our customers to bring out new technology.”
On the company’s expectations, vis-à-vis its marketing objectives from the trade show, Mr. Kumar mentioned that the company is looking forward to understand customer’s perspective on how to improvise on its project range. Adding that the company has invested a lot of time and energy in its marketing objectives this year, Mr. Kumar observed that they will be extremely pleased to meet new contractors and build relationships with them. Moreover, with the new product launch and most recent variants on display and the company hopes to make sales on the new products as well.
Replying to a question on the response to the XCMG range of earthmoving equipment and whether the increased traction in the road building sector has translated into increased sales volumes, Mr. Kumar observed: “With the focus of new Government on swift execution of infrastructure development primarily led by road projects, builders and contractors are under pressure to expedite the construction activities. To achieve the demand, we will have to focus on technologically superior products which offer a higher productivity while still maintaining higher operator comfort, easy serviceability and low operating cost. As per Indian roads for National and state highways, the width of the single lane is approx. 3.5 m. For this width, XCMG has introduced a range of earth moving products. The road construction segment dominates the Indian market with average deliveries between 30 to 45 days.”
Sounding optimistic about his immediate outlook for the Indian CE sector, Mr. Kumar, felt that road, irrigation, RMC, railways, metro rail, power (i.e.) nuclear, thermal, solar, wind, hydro, gas based, real estate and other community buildings are the major demand drivers for the Indian CE sector now. “However, if the demand for concrete goes up like in developed countries where more than 60% of concrete supplied is through RMC (India only about 12% overall), there could be room for more players to come in,” he explained.
Finally summing up the positive sentiments prevalent currently on the eve of the event, Mr. Kumar stated that entire sentiment has changed now with the increasing number of infrastructure projects in the country. “The interest levels have gone up substantially, with more competition in the market. This gives rise to increased innovation standards as well. We hope that this will be the key differentiator in this year’s Excon,” Mr. Kumar said signing off.