AMW Motors – Optimistic About Construction & Mining Vehicles

At AMW, we are optimistic about the long-term prospects for mining trucks even though current demand is compressed. Our approach to selling vehicles for the mining and construction segment has revolved around ensuring that the customer gets the maximum return on investment. AMW is the fastest growing truck brand in India with an annual volume growth of over 100% in the last three years. In addition, AMW has a dominant presence in the fast growing Tipper segment. Its vehicles are the preferred choice in the mining, construction and infrastructure sectors, where they operate under very arduous road and load conditions, says Mr. A. Ramasubramanian, President, AMW, in an interview with S.K.Khanna.

How has the current retrogression in various industrial, particularly the mining sector, the core business areas of truck manufacturers for construction and mining vehicles taken a heavy toll on construction and mining vehicles business? Any estimate about the fall in demand in this segment during 2012 compared with 2011?
The impact of the economic downturn has been felt across all industries and the truck industry is no exception. However, we see the situation getting better towards the last quarter of this fiscal. At AMW, we are optimistic about the long-term prospects for mining trucks even though current demand is compressed. We estimate that demand for tippers and specialized mining vehicles has fallen by over 25% on yearly basis.

Considering the current market scenario, how would the companies operating in the construction and mining vehicles market reorient their marketing strategies through more innovative marketing measures, including identification of new market routes as on recovery of this spell, the market could witness more intensified competition?
Our approach to selling vehicles for the mining and construction segment has revolved around ensuring that the customer gets the maximum Return on Investment. This means building vehicles with higher reliability, better operating parameters like power, gradeabilty, safety, and comfort. These in turn translate into higher up time. We offer air-conditioned cabins as standard fitment, which means better turnaround and higher productivity. Among our most successful differentiators has been the speed and quality of our service. For large customers and remote area applications, we have service-at-site to ensure immediate attention.

Do you think that price is a factor to reckon with in CV market, if so then how can market be sensitized to the benefit of value additions?
Value additions in terms of mileage, productivity enhancement and higher product uptime (reliability of the product) and service offerings have been our biggest strength and AMW firmly believes that mere price cannot be a consideration for purchase. Since buying a truck is highly capital intensive, return on investment is a prime consideration and we believe that it is a major reason for our success.

How does the construction and mining vehicles segment look for support in terms of rationalization of input costs, tax regime, enabling low interest regime and business environment for it, common to all sectors in the country?
We believe that a stable economic policy directed towards growth of the infrastructure sectors like mining, construction, power, highways etc would lead to better demand for goods as well as specialized vehicles like tippers, concrete mixers, tractor-trailers etc.Interest rates are also a big factor as truck operators depend heavily on financing.

A word about AMW Motors manufacturing facilities, their locations, its extensive products range in CV, including those serving the construction and mining requirements.

AMW Motors is India's third largest manufacturer of heavy commercial vehicles and has achieved a unique position in India's transportation sector through innovative engineering and customer orientation.

AMW is the fastest growing truck brand in India with an annual volume growth of over 100% for the last three years. In addition, AMW has a dominant presence in the fast growing Tipper segment. Its vehicles are the preferred choice in the mining, construction and infrastructure sectors, where they operate under very arduous road and load conditions.

The company has a widespread and growing dealer and service network across India with 123 dealerships and over 1,500 touch points. This network includes sales and service centres, authorized service outlets, mobile vans, workshops and a 24X7 helpline called 'AMW Seva' which ensures a rapid response to customer needs.

AMW won the prestigious 'CV Maker of the Year Award' 2012 by Apollo-CV Magazine. In addition, AMW won the 'Truck of the Year' award from NDTV in January 2008. The company also received the coveted 'CV Innovation of the Year 2009-10' award for its 3123 model. AMW CV Applications was given the 'Truck Application Builder of the Year- 2010' award for its Tranztar brand of fully built vehicles.

Manufacturing Facilities
AMW's fully integrated manufacturing facility in Bhuj, Gujarat, has a planned capacity of 50,000 commercial vehicles per annum. The facilities include a fully integrated assembly line, contemporary cab and paint shops and world class testing facilities. AMW's 200-seat research centre focuses on research and development of new products and technologies that impact performance characteristics, safety, environment, and comfort.

What is the market response to company's AMW Tippers and Haulage Trucks, their superior technical attributes as they are different from others in the market? What are the important application areas?
The response is very positive and the products are across all the applications like Mining, construction, containers, cement carriers, bulkers, transit mixers, tractor-trailers. It may be worth mentioning here that before this current slowdown, we were growing at a compounded rate of close to 100% on yearly basis. Our recently introduced haulage vehicles have received positive response from the pilot customers and we are confident that this would form an important part of our sales in the coming months.

What are AMW's plans to manufacture and market 1618 TP tippers from manufacturing facility in Bhuj and plans to increase your presence in the trailer and concrete mixer market?
AMW offers tippers in 16 ton capacity as well transit mixers as fully built products with differentiated features.

A brief of company's market distribution network, onsite service support systems and full-fledged pre- and post-sales services. How does the company help the customers to select right products as per the present and the future requirements?
AMW has 122 sales & ssservice and spare parts dealers besides 1500+ touch points across all major routes in the country. Our customers have found our 24x7 call centre very useful and we are able to attend to breakdown repairs speedily. We offer on-site support for large projects in remote locations. AMW Seva, our service brand offering offers complete maintenance, repair and service facilities.