"We Will Continue to Build our Local Presence"
With higher growth projected for India, what is your demand assessment for Crushing Solutions from the Indian infrastructure sector? Which are the key demand areas, you foresee will drive growth?
We find that with growing emphasis on road construction by the Indian government, it will be one of the key areas for demand of aggregates that is expected to drive demand for our products. However, we also foresee demand for Washing and Recycling equipment as the market matures. Taking note of the growing demand of washing solutions, we are closely studying the market and demand trend and plan to increase our product range accordingly.
How do you look to take on the projected demand, while making your products cost competitive to own and operate, in highly competitive Indian crushing and screening market?
We have been closely monitoring the demand trend of the Indian market and reorienting our products and services accordingly. Ever since, the Indian plant was set up in 2009 at Hosur, the focus of Terex was chiefly on processing of iron ore. However, with slump in the steel sector globally, we directed our focus towards infrastructure sector, precisely the road infrastructure sector, requiring aggregates of varied dimensions making us focus more on India manufactured equipment and related strengthening of support services in India. We expect with thrust on road infrastructure sector, involving longer stretches of road projects, demand for Crushing, Screening and Washing equipment will continue. To expand and consolidate our business presence in the segment, characterized by high competition, we have carried sizeable investment at our plant to manufacture high quality and reliable, not to mention, cost competitive products. While increased localization will enable us to be competitive, most importantly it will enable us to significantly reduce our lead times for the equipment.
Will you be also targeting the export markets? Will the markets served with standard products?
The plant at Hosur is instrumental for serving the domestic Indian markets as well as growing export markets of South East Asia, Africa and Middle East. The products manufactured at Hosur plant are now proudly exported even to the Europe and Americas.
What are the newer initiatives to increase sales and strengthen product support?
We follow a direct to market strategy for our MPS (Minerals Processing Systems) and Terex Washing Systems (TWS) businesses and have a mixed model for our track business lines. We have dealers for the track business across the country who have their own sales, service and parts teams across the country. The dealers also have their own parts warehouses across the country to cater to the customers in remote areas.
On part of strengthening product support, we have now launched a full-fledged training centre at our Hosur plant. The training facility would be aim to train upto 500 operators annually. Our intention is to train plant operators who are the real users of the machines. These training programs are tailor made to suit the requirements of the batch of people who are attending a particular training program and would include training on troubleshooting, optimal operation of the machines and plant performance, etc. Our aim is to reduce plant downtime by having trained manpower at site which would result in lower cost per ton for the plant owners. Our other major product support initiative has been to create a dedicated rock testing laboratory, to determine the character of the feed to be crushed.
Strengthening after market support, we are leveraging our support to customers located in remote areas and also across the country. We currently have three large parts warehouses in Hosur Gurgaon and Nagpur. We are also planning to open a parts warehouse in Eastern part of the country in this quarter.
Published on:
07 March 2016
Published in: NBM&CW March 2016
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