India: The Fastest Growing Market in PEB

The speed with which the pre-engineered building technology is making in-roads in commercial and residential segment across rural and urban areas of the country, India is well set to become a major steel building maker in the world. India is also the fastest growing market in the PEB construction segment at 9.5% quite ahead of China with a growth rate of 8.5%. says, Sr. V. P Marketing, Era Buildsys Limited (EBSL) Mr. Anil Kumar Sharma, in an interview with MGS Architecture Excerpts.

What is your overview of developments, promotion and application of pre-engineered building system as prevalent abroad and its comparison with those in India? Why these systems have not gained popularity despite their manifold advantages over conventional system?
If the industry of Pre-engineered steel buildings continues to grow at the current 33% growth rate in India, then in a short span of 7-8 years India will be among the top 10 countries supplying steel building to the world.

PEB concept has been very successful and well established in North America, Australia and is currently expanding to U.K and other European countries. PEB construction is 30 to 40% faster than masonry construction. PEB buildings provide good insulation effect and would be highly suitable for a tropical country like India. It is ideal for construction in remote & hilly areas. These systems have not gained popularity despite their manifold advantages over conventional system as people have not yet adapted to the new system and prefer sticking to conventional RCC structures. Now the demand is of 2 million tones whereas supply is of only 0.4 million tones, which is not good enough to meet the demand.

What are the major hurdles in the way? What steps the company is currently contemplating to boost its business?
Today, in India, people are still not aware of this industry and still go for RCC and Conventional steel building solutions.

Looking into the time frame of tight project schedule, PEB structures can be used for tenders to deliver quality, esthetic, structural flexibility & ultimately promote usages of steel over concrete. The other advantage of the PEB structure is that steel can reduce carbon dioxide emission which will minimize pollution. At Era, we are catering to the requirement of clients in Power sector, heavy structural steel for boiler support structure also and for infrastructure projects. PEB industry is in fragmented condition – so the company will take well crafted long- term strategies in order to attempt a consolidation of the same.

Please elaborate on Era Building Systems, and its turnkey solutions.
Era Buildsys Ltd is the pre-engineering arm of the Era group of companies and a leading player in its niche business space. As an innovative business leader, Era Buildsys lends tremendous differentiation to infrastructure development and construction techniques through the application of Pre-engineered Building technology, a global construction technology practice, as against conventional building practices.

The Company's focus areas centre around power, commercial buildings, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, educational institutes, hospitals, schools, auditoriums, residential buildings and multiplexes.

Era Group with its expertise and vast experience in the construction industry likes to render unique services, which would facilitate the clients to execute the project in a professional manner. Having sound infrastructural facilities, they are in a position to provide cost effective and turnkey solutions including designing, engineering, manufacturing, and commissioning of all types of metal buildings.

The objective of providing turnkey solutions under one point responsibility shall enable satisfaction of the clients, consultants/architects whose vision ERA brings to reality.

Being one of the foremost players in this segment, how over the years Era has evolved to the position it enjoys in pre-engineered building technology, products and services?
EBSL is known in quality support, costing even in terms of sales after services and market reputation and awareness. It has the capacity of manufacturing 80mm thick plate, 40mm more than the limitation in the market. Also, serves both public and private sector.

A word about Era BuildSys manufacturing facilities, their locations and product range and its USP.
EBSL have two manufacturing plant one at Pantnagar, Uttarakhand and other one at Nagpur. Both together can manufacture approx 1, 75,000 MT of steel to serve the need of India. The company is equipped with a fully integrated facility, an automated laboratory and ultra-modern machinery for offering complete turnkey Pre-engineered Building (PEB) solutions for hi-end applications across diverse sectors.

What are the different application areas for Era products?
Our targeted customer bases are industrial and residential sector. PEBs can be used in Industrial Constructions which involve industries like Automobile (Both Automobile Plants & Ancillary Industries), Manufacturing Plants, Warehouse Buildings, Steel Industry, Power Plants, Metro Railways Construction, Small Sheds, Block, Heavy Fabricated Engg, Railway Godowns, Gas stations. Similarly it is also being put to use in Vehicle parking sheds, Bridges, Indoor stadium roofs, Outdoor stadium canopies, Sports and recreational facilities, Platform shelters, Recreational, Labor camps, Military camps, Low cost housings, Hospitals etc.

PEBs can also be utilized for building up large retail complex and spaces but currently not many players have been able to tap the residential part of construction using PEBs due to lack of awareness.

What are the prospects of PEB Building Systems and company's future plans?
India is the fastest growing market in the PEB construction segment at 9.5%, ahead of China at 8.5%. The Industry size of Pre-Engineered buildings in India is $0.38 billion. Currently, 33% of the Indian Construction industry is based on PEBs, whereas the remaining 67% is Conventional construction. Era BuildSys is trying to enter into all sectors for growth potential in coming projects. Overall the PEB industry in India is expected to grow rapidly at around 35% per annum (which is considered as a conservative estimate). As per the industry experts, potential growth with current capacity is 10% year-on-year basis. Hence there would be good scope for capacity expansion for the current market players in the Indian PEB Industry.

As the future seems bright and more demand is expected. ERA BuildSys will come up with more installed capacity. It will give greater emphasis on marketing and brand promotion – through participation in industrial and Trade promotional fairs – to grab and tap more business and customer attention. In addition, bring in centralisation of processes by better implementation of centralised IT and design systems.