Anil Bhatia, VP-Sales & Marketing - TIL Limited
Demand for cranes is being driven by road and infrastructure projects.
Demand for mobile cranes, particularly rough terrain (RT), all terrain (AT), and truck cranes (TC) is robust. In truck cranes, there is more demand for the 50 - 80 ton; for rough terrains it is for the 20-50 ton class; and for the all-terrain, it is the 100-150 ton. According to industry estimates, demand is estimated to be around 500-600 units, while production capacities are estimated to be around 350 units in India.
Demand is being driven by road and infrastructure projects and to a fair extent by metro and railway projects. We will gear up to meet demand by expanding our production capacity at our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kharagpur. The preference of newer cranes will see better hiring rates as well.
While all the segments of infrastructure will be our target market, including the institutional buyers, however, we will be targeting the crane rental agencies in a major way. This is because rental companies always look for projects that can be executed in a shorter span of time and they want flexibility. These companies are potential buyers of our higher capacity cranes with longer booms.
We are now equipping our cranes with new U-shaped booms made of higher tensile steel.
There is a perception that heavier the boom, the load carrying capacity of the crane diminishes. This is because the boom, owing to the heights it is supposed to function in, the load is subtracted from the carrying capacity of the cranes. In view of this engineering paradox, we are now equipping our cranes with new U-shaped booms made of higher tensile steel. The high-grade steel, which is imported from best mills around the world, reduces the weight of the boom, enabling the cranes to give higher lift capacity. The U-shaped booms are an advancement over the trapezoidal shaped booms which worked to heights less than 40 meters, while the U-shaped booms can work even at 50 meters height.
Once we introduce higher capacity cranes, they will work even at 60-70 meter heights and they will also have a higher power to weight ratio.
We have developed an advanced diagnostics system that requires just a laptop.
With our new intelligent systems, the owners and operators of our cranes can derive information on their machine such as fuel consumption etc and also diagnose its health for timely troubleshooting and preventive and predictive maintenance to reduce downtime. We have developed an advanced diagnostics system that requires just a laptop to check any fault in the machine and fix it quickly. We are also very focused on ensuring safety in our cranes.
We are making the cabins in our cranes more operator-friendly.
We are adding features that will provide better safety and comfort to the operators. Many crane owners are asking for air-conditioned cabins so that the operator can work more comfortably and thereby deliver higher productivity. We are placing the controls within easy reach of the operator and enabling a quick view of the operating data. This will give the operator the confidence that every operating parameter is within the desired limit. We have also provided intelligent solutions in the controls in case of troubleshooting.
In the over 100-ton capacity cranes IoT will begin to play a vital role in the crane’s utilization and performance.
From the utilization point of view, I would like to mention that, as you move above the 100-ton capacity cranes, the Internet of Things begins to play a vital role in the crane’s utilization and performance. However, Indian customers prefer to handle cranes that are easier to operate and are less complex.
The new Vahan-4 regulation will be instrumental in driving business as demand for new cranes will rise.
The new Vahan-4 regulation restricting the use of old cranes is indeed a welcome initiative by the government as prior to 2017 the crane market was dominated by used equipment as there were no rules for registration of cranes. Vahan-4 will be the biggest driver of change. Now, homologation certificates will be required. In fact, TIL was the first crane company in India to get its cranes homologated.
With more and more RTOs going online, it will deter crane owners from registering their machines anywhere, in case they are not homologated. Major users are also stressing on using newer cranes due to safety considerations.
Our Bharat stage-4 compliant cranes will be market ready by August 2020.
Our cranes are powered with Cummins, Ashok Leyland and Volvo Penta engines. All the manufacturers are ready to meet the new Bharat stage-4 norms. We are also making modifications in the hydraulic system of our cranes and these machines will be ready by August 2020.
We are developing a new range of RT cranes for domestic and export markets.
We are developing a new range of RT cranes with some design modifications as per the changing customer requirements at home and also as per the requirements of our export markets in the Middle East and Far East from where we have received our first round of orders. We also plan to be present more strongly in the African markets.
We had ventured into exports through renowned contractors, who deployed TIL cranes at job sites in the Middle East and in the Far East. However, during the last two years, we have been selling our cranes directly in these markets, including Middle East & Africa, through our Grove dealers.
Increasing our production capacity and will be rolling out new products.
For the all-terrain Grove cranes, we only sell and service them in India. For the truck and rough terrain cranes, we have a technological transfer agreement with Grove for manufacturing and selling these cranes in India. Cranes that are being exported are branded as Grove TIL. We are also exporting Reachstackers in Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Australia under the brand name Hyster.
We are also increasing our production capacity and will be rolling out products, which have been manufactured jointly with Grove, for the export markets.
We are betting high on rental agencies for our truck cranes.
To meet the requirements of the crane rental agencies, we are promoting our truck cranes as they have higher mobility and can be redeployed faster within locations. This meets the requirements of rental companies as they usually have smaller job packages in hand.
Our technological expertise gives the TIL brand a strong competitive positioning in the market.
The emerging competition is a positive development as it will help the market move into two different product positionings, resulting in two sets of customers: those who are looking for long lasting solutions with higher initial costs and others who are looking for products with lower initial costs. So, we will see two business models.
At TIL, we are positioning our products as per the market requirements. Our technological expertise and that of our collaborators, will give our brand a strong competitive positioning in the market.
TIL is offering leasing, buyback and refurbishment services.
Due to the organized nature of the crane rental agency in India, there is a used cranes market. The first-time buyer uses his TIL crane for 15-20 years and then sells it to a second-hand buyer. Since, we have the historical data of the crane on its maintenance etc, we share it with the second buyer. We also do a total check-up of the machine and undertake a complete onsite refurbishment. Refurbishment is also done at our workshops in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai where we have skilled technicians for the job.
We conduct regular programs for upgrading and skilling its operators.
We have a mandatory training program for our institutional customers, government agencies, and rental agencies. We also impart training to the operators of the hiring companies when the machine is being dispatched. We conduct regular courses for operators, refresher courses, and basic troubleshooting courses. As part of our product support, we offer annual maintenance and operational contracts.
NBM&CW December 2019
