Published: October 16, 2018 |

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Tata Hitachi, a joint venture between Tata Motors (40 percent) and Hitachi Construction Machinery (60 percent), which makes a range of excavators, rigid dump trucks, wheel loaders and backhoe loaders sees India as key growth market. The company is planning to invest Rs 200-300 crore in the next two years for expansion in terms of capacity and roll out new models. If India implements Smart Cities, there will be more demand. Desilting of ponds, garbage handling will drive good demand for smaller excavators and mini-loaders and there is a good scope with river linking initiatives as well.

Tata Hitachi MD Sandeep Singh told Telangana Today, “We currently have two-wheel drive vehicles and plan to launch four-wheel drive vehicles in one year from now. We are also working on localising two tonne and three tonne excavator machines in India and will introduce two tonne excavator next year. These will be used in road construction and real estate and with affordable housing picking up, we anticipate good demand. India is also laying optic fibre cables, which will again need excavators.”

“We expect road sector to pick up in the next one year. Mining is still not doing well as the sector. This year, we are looking at 15 percent growth and will expect 10 per cent growth next year as this year’s base could be big,” he added. Tata Hitachi holds 35 per cent market share in the excavator segment and primarily caters to roads, mining and construction sector. It is aiming for selling 25,000 excavators in India during 2018-19.

Though there was a dip in backhoe loader sales during 2011-14, the segment has started growing gradually year-on-year from then onwards. The segment could expect a 15-20 per cent growth in 2018-19. With irrigation at peaks in south particularly in Telangana, AP and Karnataka and in Maharashtra, there could be fresh momentum in this space. The company operates three plants in India, one each in Jamshedpur, Dharwad and Kharagpur.

He informed, “We have the South Asia’s largest facility in Kharagpur and will concentrate on expanding capacities in Dharwad as well. In Dharwad, we will be making backhoe loader, mini-excavators and mini-loaders. We have huge capacities now where we will expand in future. We have 250 acres in Kharagpur and 108 acres in Dharwad.”

LAUNCH OF SHINRAI

The company launched its backhoe loader, Shinrai, in Telangana after having rolled out in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The vehicle will find demand in mining and irrigation sectors. The backhoe loader is being made in the company’s Dharwad plant in Karnataka with a capacity of 75 machines a month and by March 2019, the company anticipates to create capacity to meet the 75 per cent of the Indian market. And by July 2019, it will be made available across India.

The localization for the machine is about 90 percent at present with 10 percent components being imported. The company plans to export the machine to neighboring countries and Africa after catering to the domestic market. For across product range, the company plans to export through port in Mumbai and is exploring exports from West Bengal.

Source:  Telangana today

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