MBK Bets Big on Indian Building Industry

"MBK Maschinenbau GmbH is in the business of manufacturing cage welding machines for reinforcement of all types of concrete products. The machines come with different variety of shapes, is well-known and has been recognized the world over for its unmatched German quality, superiority, and longevity. MBK is also manufacturing welding machines for molding and processing of concrete pipes used largely by the construction and building industry for variety of usages including concealed, over ground and underground purposes," says Mr. Giel Janssen, Commercial Director, MBK Maschinenbau GmbH, in an interaction with S.K Rizvi on the sidelines of the recently concluded Bauma China 2010, a trade show in Shanghai.


Explaining the applications of the product, Mr. Janssen said that for the building industry, we offer cages for piles, poles, columns and beams and they can easily be welded by our quality machines. In fact, our products are unmatched in reliability, life span and high productivity because MBK is highly focused on its after sales services. In terms of customer support services, we are offering the machines with integrated modem, which enables to see all the electronic parts in the machines and can check the program, its ride, functionality and control systems, among others. Due to its global acceptance, we sold over 750 machines worldwide wherein, in North America alone, we have sold over 160 machines.

Sharing his viewpoint about the Indian market, he added that his company is marketing its products in India for the past 4 years with the help of Technicom, in Delhi. We are currently exploring the market and found that the initial response is encouraging but the market catch up is moving at a slow pace. Although, there is huge potential in the country where construction and building companies still prefer labor intensive resources more than equipments and modern machines but at the same time, the trend is getting changed swiftly for better side which will open up new business vistas for our company in aftertime.

We are very optimistic and hopeful that this market will change at a faster pace to accept our product in a big way because there is a great potential in the building and construction sector in India and we will be happy to be a part of the hi-tech building and development as we are working hard to achieve our targets.

Going ahead, he reiterated that price sensitivity is an important factor in the Indian market. In pipe industry, there are several companies offering cheap products including forged versions of our machines. Although some people are accepting our products and going for long-term investment but we have also noticed that some companies, which had earlier bought equipment from Vietnam and China, are now increasingly reverting to us for our products as they are not satisfied at all with their machines.

Tackling the price sensitivity of the Indian market, we have developed low budget machines and also took up the part automatisation, not for liability or productivity but for the comforts of the machines operators. So far as the price is concerned, we are still above our nearest competitors. We have sold only 4 machines in India so far but we are sure that this market can offer much more business opportunities as it is bouncing back briskly and we hope to sell 7-10 machines per annum in the next couple of years.

Sharing his view on the impact of global downturn, he said that recession has not affected almost every country that much, it has impacted economies which are highly based on financing. Countries in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, among others have never felt the need of finance and they have been buying and going steady and are expanding at an encouraging pace but rest of the countries in this planet have severely suffered from the pangs of the global financial turmoil.

I think that recession is now almost over and industry is back on its fast track of growth trajectory. We are eagerly looking forward to see the construction and building industry across the globe soon returns to its pristine and pre-recession glory, he concluded.