Escorts Construction Equipment unveils India’s safest Pick-n-Carry Crane

Escorts Construction Equipment (ECE), the construction and material handling equipment manufacturing arm of Escorts Limited, launched India’s safest/compact Pick-n-Carry Crane, CT Smart 15, and the top-end,12-ton class Soil Compactor EC 3212.

The CT Smart 15 Crane has unique anti-toppling and anti-lifting features that provide enhanced safety on site. Developed with indigenous R&D in sync with Make in India, the crane has a turning radius of just 6 meters, and provides auto de-rated load chart in articulation along with other standard features.

Escorts’ robust product portfolio in material handling, soil compaction and earth moving equipment are BSIII emission norm compliant. Its Jungli Backhoe Loader has the world’s best Knorr driving lines, and is targeted at both corporate and retail customers.

Mr. Ajay Mandahr, CEO, ECE, said, “Our CT Smart 15 pick and carry is the safest in the market and its 6-m turning radius makes it most suitable for metro projects and smart cities. It is also high on ergonomics and easy repair-ability. We are looking at making more value additions for versatility in material handling jobs, man basket jobs, etc, and be the machine for urban places that need high safety. Escorts EC 3212 soil compactor has been designed for highways and expressways to give higher productivity by working 24x7, with provision of proper lighting and ease of servicing at sites.”

“There is an increasing demand for safer and more productive solutions, and we, at Escorts, are fully equipped with our best in class machines for Indian conditions. We have further upgraded them as per the market requirements, and we are getting a good response from our customers,” he added.


Escorts currently enjoys over 40% market share in the Pick-n-Carry Crane segment and is growing. In the Compaction equipment segment, it aims to increase its market share to 15%. In the Earthmoving segment, its products Digmax-II and Jungli are well differentiated with several advantages over competing products. Jungli is positioned as a heavy-duty machine for hard strata application and it caters to the niche segment in which the company is going strong.

Commenting on the above, Mr. Mandahr said, “The segments that we address - earthmoving, material handling and road construction will see investments being made to the tune of millions of dollars. We have about 23% growth in compaction; in the Pick and Carry segment it is around 40% growth; and in backhoes it is 5 percent. Our overall market growth is a good 20%, based on our value innovations and the most competitive operating costs for our customers.”

Responding to the statement that Escorts is targeting a double-digit turnover by 2021 with exports based on indigenous R&D, he said, “At our Knowledge Management Centre (KMC) in Faridabad, we develop and design all our products in-house. We have developed a roadmap for our upcoming products, which will cover the next 3-4 years in terms of in-house R&D, launches, etc.

And where we don’t have a technology, we will do a technical tie-up or hire a studio in Europe to do the machine configuration.”

Regarding exports, he informed that Escorts has a credible footprint in SAARC, South Asia, and Africa. “We have launched our backhoe loader with a Cummins engine in the Middle East, and are opening up in Latin America also. About 10% of our business is coming from exports, and going forward, it should be 20% in the next 3-4 years, so exports will be a key driver for our overall growth strategy.”

Mr. Rajinder Raina, GM - Marketing, expressing satisfaction with the exhibition, said, “Our launch of the two products was very well received at Excon. The scale of the show bears testimony to the upbeat mood and market expectancy. The iCEMA conference gave a lot of insight market trends and on upcoming developments in the CE industry, so there was a lot of shared optimism amongst manufacturers, buyers and end-users.”

In his opinion, 2018 will carry forward the growth momentum of the past two years at a faster pace. “If the Bharatmala project takes off as planned, our industry could enter a golden period, and it will usher in a new era, especially for our domain/served markets. The volumes will hit new highs, and new technologies and products will enter the market. Customer services will also enter a new phase wherein we could see equipment aggregators, major/organised hirers, pre-used equipment, CMCs and broad-based AMCs taking a more defined and proper shape.”

In his view, 2018 will witness (in the high-volume segment), a combined sale of more than 45,000 Backhoe Loaders & Excavators plus more than 8000 cranes, with compactors touching/crossing 5000 units. The growth in volumes of other equipment is going to be equally impressive with lower GST, and a reasonable cost of capital will act as a catalyst. CE manufacturers are more than ready to deliver these numbers as are the suppliers and the vendors. Some new products will enter the market as well. The next 12 to 18 months could see some players enter their best phase yet. “Let’s how it pans out as we enter the last quarter of the current fiscal and then FY 2018-19,” he concluded.