Voltas Focuses on Crane Business

"Crane segment is emerging as an important business area of Voltas with addition of new products. It recently launched its Hydraulic Mobile Pick & Carry Crane which has received good response from the market. The Company is aiming at putting its crane business under one roof to achieve better synergy and offer total crane solutions to the end users. At bC India, it would display its 2 Stage wheeled crushing plants and 20 tonne truck cranes indigenously designed by Voltas," says Mr. Milind Anjankar, Head-Construction Equipment Division, Voltas Limited, in an interview with S.A.Faridi.

Voltas has recently launched Hydraulic Mobile Pick & Carry Cranes and also merged its crane business. What are the reasons behind this?

Crane is an important business group in Construction Equipment division and we are the market leaders representing Kobelco crawler cranes. We also represent large class Tower cranes from China. Our other division was also handling Rough terrain and Pick & Carry cranes. We therefore decided that all Crane business to be brought under same vertical so as to give more synergy and offer total solutions to the end users. This was also essential to optimize existing resources.

What has been the market response to this new launch?
The response to Pick & Carry Cranes is very good and encouraging. Many corporate clients have already reposed their faith in us and we are revamping our manufacturing facilities and scaling up our operations this year.

What is your overview of market development projections in the crane sector in the next 3-4 years and Voltas expectation of the market share in this time span?
Construction Equipment industry is a key contributor to economy and is slated to double every 4 years. In crawler cranes, the current market size of 225 units will reach a level of 400 units plus by 2014 and major sizes will be 80-250 T class in this category.

Rough terrain market will grow from current level of 115 units to over 200 units by 2014. We also expect Tower crane market to grow to 450 units in next 4 years from current level of 250.

The truck crane market will be roughly 190 units from present 120 units. And lastly Pick & Carry cranes will be 12,000 plus units market in 2014 from current level of 8500 units. As you will notice Cranes market is poised for substantial growth in coming years.

A word about Voltas technical services as related to delivery and supply of cranes and other construction equipment products and its new product offerings for the mining and construction sector. What are the key differentiators?
We offer many value added services like ASC, AMC, FMC, O&M in addition to warranty and installation services for imported products like Crushers and Cranes. We also plan to launch 20 T truck crane and concrete batch plants this year. Many new products will be announced at suitable dates. Our key differentiators vis–a–vis competition are customer relationships, servicing skills, cost effective solutions, partnering with various Principals and lean operations.

Please tell us in brief about Voltas' important business areas.
Our Construction Equipment Division has 3 business groups namely Cranes, Crushers & Screens and Concrete. Out of this Crusher is the biggest division comprising imported product mix and Voltas make plants. The Concrete vertical is a new one and we are planning to launch Concrete batch plants in a phased manner. Both Cranes and Crushers group have a product mix comprising local manufactured and imported product lines. Each group operates as an independent profit centre and the resources are separate.

What would be focus of Voltas's participation in the forthcoming bC India–Mumbai exhibition and its expectations from such an event in promoting its business and technical collaboration as related to its business? How is this event going to be different from the similar ones taking place in the country?
We are displaying 2 stage Wheeled Crushing Plant and 20 ton Truck Cranes. Both these products are designed indigenously by Voltas. This exhibition is giving us an opportunity to showcase our capabilities in terms of design and manufacturing.

A word about Voltas nationwide dealers' network and plans to widen and strengthen the same matching with emerging demand for its products and services?
We are representing foreign Principals including Terex-Powerscreen, Kobelco Cranes, NFLG Batch plants and hence we provide direct support to our end users. With recent launch of Pick & Carry cranes which is a huge market, we have added dealers at selected locations and would like to expand the same during next year.