Mr. Nandish Surelia, Director, Maxmech
What will be the company’s focus during its participation at bauma Conexpo India 2016?
The construction industry is a major contributor towards India’s GDP, both directly and indirectly. Despite many positive signs, activity in the construction sector appears to be quite slow currently.
The construction equipment industry is in the midst of considerable change; demand has been highly volatile and is currently weak. The customer landscape and expectations of OEMs are changing, and competitors from emerging markets are getting stronger. Our prime focus in bauma conexpo India 2016 will be to gain deeper customer insight and stay at the forefront. We are also trying to collaborate closely with dealers to gain access and deliver on customer insight.
What products and services will be launched/ displayed at the show?
From our existing products, we are planning to display our mobile batching plant (MMP series) and stationery concrete batching plant (MAX series).
We are also launching our new product, Artificial Sand Making plant. The major highlight of this plant is that it helps to produce sand at a very low production cost. Maintenance of this plant is comparatively very easy.
Higher uptime, low operating cost, strong after-sales services, and spare parts availability have become key selling points. How is your company strengthening its position in these areas?
Construction Equipment is a complex and fragmented industry, which is highly diverse in terms of company sizes, machine types, geographical plays, and value chain roles. The above-mentioned selling points are considered as compulsion in Maxmech. For truly to understand the customers, our main focus is to be up and close with our customers; any strategy about better understanding of end-customers will require much closer cooperation and alignment
We are continuously focusing on more efficient and innovative ways to optimize our marketing activities.
What is your view on the growth of the construction equipment industry in India?
Construction equipment industry is continuously on the rise and we are seeing a positive graph in future. Some factors that are currently driving demand for construction equipment in India include heavy investments in various infrastructural projects by public and private enterprises in areas like road construction and maintenance, ports, power plants, telecommunication sector, urban infrastructural developments, etc. There will be new opportunities for the industries when smart cities, clean India, and fast train projects are implemented in India.
The new government has several plans to revive road sector projects and keep up its vision of building world-class highways across the country.
However, there are certain challenges that the construction industry has been facing for a long time now; there has been a delay in infrastructure projects due to time and cost overruns. Insufficiency of funds, environmental concerns and delay in government clearances have added to this. Project delays have been caused due to land acquisition challenges, in turn, causing major investment deferrals by companies. There is also a lack of structured regulatory and policy framework for PPP models which needs to be addressed.
Another aspect to address is constant upgrade of technologies and method specifications along with introducing new technologies. Increasingly, machines have to be designed to give better efficiency in terms of fuel consumption and productivity.
NBM&CW December 2016
