Mitul Patel, Apollo Inffratech Group
Mitul Patel, Group Managing Director
We believe that introducing newer construction technologies for infra development will be key business drivers.
The ongoing rapid mechanization of India’s infrastructure construction is a major scope for the growth of construction equipment companies as they will be driven to tap opportunities to bring in the required technologies to support mechanization and drive business as well.
The Indian infrastructure sector is in a transition. Larger, more complex projects and faster completion timelines require specialized technologies for timely and quality completion. This is visible across major projects like roads, expressways, metro tunnels etc in the constricted urban areas.
To offer technologically advanced solutions to our Indian customers across various product categories, we have formed a joint venture with Hawkeye Pedershaab of USA for Concrete pipes; with Zenith for concrete paver block making machines; Carmix for self-loading transit mixers; Parker for Batch mix plant and technical alliance with Hem of USA for slip form concrete Road pavers.
Our joint ventures with different companies for various products aim to bring to India the best technologies available globally to meet the upcoming requirements in infrastructure construction. This has also gain us a competitive edge in the market, so much so, that Apollo Inffratech sales was 30% higher across all the products in 2022 as compared to 2021.
We will continue to be a tech-driven company and deliver superior solutions to the end-users, backed by reliable and timely customer support. We will also improve our existing product lines as there is still a major user base in India using conventional technologies. Our aim is to ensure availability of our products and their efficient performance. For instance, we have made some improvisations in our asphalt drum mix plants to improve their output and fuel efficiency and to enable the right burning of aggregates with quality burners.
We have also made improvements in the 4TT premium Carmix Self-Loading Transit Mixers, 25 FX and 45 FX by adding load cells in the drum and not in the bucket as is done by other brands. The double flight design of the drums is facilitating quicker concrete discharge. Modifications have also been done to improve loading/unloading speed, mobility, and fuel efficiency with stage IV engines.
We have recently formed a JV with Parker for manufacturing asphalt batch mix plants at our upcoming facility near Mehsana, Gujarat, where Parker’s full range of batch and counter flow drum-mix asphalt plants will be manufactured.
With this JV, we will offer plants ranging from 100 tph to 400 tph with high fuel and heating efficiency through Parker’s burners and rated throughput. The upcoming facility (one of Parker’s global manufacturing facility) will be constructed in two phases: Construction of first phase is underway on 11 acres of land and is expected to be commissioned by June 2022. It will produce 60-70 units of asphalt batch mix plant for the Indian market and also for Parker’s globally located customers. The second phase of the facility, also of 11acres, will produce different kinds of road construction equipment from Parker.
We will initially launch140-180 tph batch mix plants, while the prevailing market is of 120-160 tph plants in India. We will subsequently launch higher capacities of 220 tph and 260 tph plants as per the demand.
Under the JV with HawkeyePeder-shaab, we have been manufacturing machinery for making precast concrete products including RCC pipes, manholes, box culverts, U drains for India and across the world. We use latest ‘VIHY’ Technology for producing precast concrete products range 300 to 3600mm dia. and 300x300mm to 3000x3000mm square.
Being a part of Afinitas group, we offer German Technology from BFS for making pressure pipes, the prestressed concrete pipes will feature an embedded steel cylinder inside and prestressed wire wrap. The PCCP, prestressed concrete cylinder pipes (the first in India) consist of a concrete core, a thin steel cylinder, high tensile prestressing wires and a mortar coating, so that they can withstand very high water pressure. The prestessed concrete pipes, are designed and manufactured with particularly high concrete strength, tight tolerances and guaranteed smooth finish, most suitable for high pressure water pipelines with high life expectancy. We are aggressive towards increasing demand of pressure pipes for the prestigious river linking project of the government and the urban renewal projects which will require upgrading the potable water pipelines in urban areas. We will market these machines to EPC contractors also.
We have very strong in-house design and cost-effective production capabilities.
We are using the latest 3D modeling software to design our machines, and selecting new materials and processes like Kaizen, and ensuring that the final product quality is not compromised while bringing down the cost of production.
To offset the rising cost of raw materials, especially steel, which has been putting pressure on our operating margins, and the disruptions in supply of electronics components used in the machines, we are doing advanced planning and streamlining procurement of electronic components to avoid any delay in production and final deliveries.
We are reorienting our marketing and product support systems towards greater dealer involvement in sales and marketing of our products.
Being a dealership driven company, we are now making some changes in the selection of dealers. Earlier, the dealers were expected to only drivesales, but now, we want the dealers to take a more proactive approach to sales, by associating more closely with the customers and promoting our products and highlighting their benefits.
We have 19 dealers across 46 branches with 200 service engineers, besides which, we have our own 30 service engineers, and 30 sales offices pan India.
At Excon
Apollo Inffratech Group is participating in EXCON outdoor area. (Stall no 38) We are launching Starmix series batch mix plant from Parker plant india Pvt. Ltd. and ZN1000i from ApolloZenith Concrete Technologies Pvt. Ltd. In addition, we are displaying Self Loading Concrete Mixer, Compact Series batching plant, Sensor paver, box culvert mould etc.
NBM&CW May 2022
