TIL expands high tonnage mobile cranes manufacturing

In a bid to make the most out of the emerging demand scenario in the equipment industry, the Kolkata based construction equipment maker TIL Ltd, has recently decided to revive the ₹180 crore plant to set up a second factory at Kharagpur to manufacture a new range of high tonnage mobile cranes to cater to the increasing demand of the products worldwide, Chairman and Managing Director Sumit Mazumder said. He added that the construction of the plant will begin soon and the project will be financed through sale of land assets in Uttar Pradesh, which was previously used for Caterpillar business. As a matter of fact, cranes are biggest revenue churner for TIL as the company has an existing tie up with Grove, a brand owned by Manitowoc Cranes USA and dominates 65-70% of the tyre mounted rough terrain and tough terrain cranes.

The market is getting more competitive as the Chinese makers are throwing serious price competition and big time global crane makers like Tadano are entering the market. TIL is, therefore, readying for competition by widening the product basket and improving the scope for exports. The recent trend indicated that the foreign equipment makers are quietly increasing sourcing from India under the Make-in-India emphasis and protection to intellectual property. For example, till a couple of years ago, TIL used to make port and container handling equipment in collaboration with Hyster-Yale Group, only for the Indian market. But currently, Hyster sources part of TIL’s production of reach stackers to cater global demands. This is over and above the rising demand for such equipment keeping in tune with the rise on container traffic, he insisted.