Premraj Keshyep, Managing Director, KYB Conmat Pvt. Ltd.
How do you see the current market scenario for concrete equipment in India?
Concrete equipment market is growing in India. The Government is taking a lot of initiatives in Infrastructure, especially Housing, City/Town Roads, Highways, Airports, Irrigation Canals, Dams etc. The good part is that the projects are getting funded and land acquisition has also become fast. This has given confidence among the contractors. There is a new generation of contractors who have graduated to take on big contracts, and they have an expectation of earning the bonus on contracts. They opt for advance and reliable equipment, and this has given a positive boost to the concrete equipment market. Owing to this, we registered a growth of 70% last fiscal, and are experiencing the similar growth in the current fiscal also.
What are your market growth expectations during 2017-19 for concrete equipment sector in general and KYB Conmat in particular?
We expect the concrete equipment market in India to grow between 15 to 20%, however, we are anticipating much bigger growth at KYB Conmat to the tune of 50 to 60% due to various factors:
- Introduction of new products like Construction Elevators, Concrete Pumps, Higher capacity Batching Plants, etc.
- Expansion of Sales Network to all the regions of India.
- Increasing Exports, our Indian operation is being developed as a global manufacturing hub for KYB Group.
- Setting up Service Centers in Major Markets.
We are fully geared to exploit the infrastructure growth In the North-East. Contract of over Rs. 5000 cr has already been awarded and which is in different phases of mobilization/implementation. Some of our customers are already using our equipment in the region in HEP, airports, buildings and factories, roads, etc., and we have already made our presence felt in that region. Our compact design of equipment has made it easy for the customer to use them in rough terrains. Looking at the rising demand in the region and to have close proximity to customers, we have set up a regional office in Kolkata. Our trained service personnel can reach the remotest locations easily. We have a rich stock of spares in our regional office and with our dealer. We are also in the process of setting up a TM Mounting cum Service Centre there.
What is KYB Conmat doing to achieve a higher level of energy efficiency in its products?
KYB Conmat has state-of-the-art Research & Development Centre in India and in Japan. And we constantly upgrade the designs of our equipment to keep up with the latest technologies. It’s our endeavor to make our equipment energy-efficient, environment-friendly, and easy to operate.
- Our R&D centre is equipped with the latest design and analysis software for prototyping, FEA, Dynamic Analysis and Validation, and is well connected to the Research Centre in Tokyo.
- Our trained & dedicated design team is fully interactive and abreast of latest needs of the customers. It has full exposure to the Indian site conditions, which helps them to design futuristic, robust and user-friendly equipment.
- Our equipment is designed and manufactured for optimum power utilization, which in turn benefits customers with low operating cost and hence, better profits.
Our Equipment Control Systems are equipped with indigenously developed remote diagnostic features, which can monitor the operations of the equipment and rectify the faults, eliminating the site visit by the service engineer, and reducing downtime. Our 24X7 Service Support Desk is linked with service engineers at different locations. It identifies caller geographical location and forwards the call to the nearest service personnel.
At KYB Conmat, our core strength is in extensive R&D. As a result, we regularly introduce new designs in the concrete equipment market. We follow a very stringent product launch policy. All our new products have to complete at least four stages of product trials and design review process. We have to adhere to all the steps which are laid down by our global quality department and KYB Engineering Standards (KES). We have recently launched Rack & Pinion Material-cum-Passenger Construction Hoists under strict and vigil audit of our quality department. The product is well accepted in the market and has very good potential. We will launch a few more new products at the upcoming bC India exhibition.
How do you see the impact of GST on the CE industry?
GST is long awaited and welcomed by all in view of the following benefits:
- This will bring all manufacturers on a level playing field, due to same tax structure all across India
- This will increase competitiveness in the organized sector as tax malpractices will stop
- Movement of goods will be easier and faster, and will require less documentation
- Distribution network and inventory management will improve due to the above reason and also due to easy stock transfer.
Our focus will be:
- To showcase our equipment with cutting-edge technology
- To explain to the customers our work process and the quality assurance that we follow
- Customers should be able to view and compare different technologies displayed at the exhibition
- To associate with the customer as a complete solution provider
- To get customer feedback on our new developments and discuss further enhancement of our products.
NBM&CW December 2016
