Here are some of the excerpts of the interview:
India’s construction equipment industry has registered a growth of 26% in FY '23. Where do you see this number growing by the end of the current fiscal year?
A We have witnessed 20% plus growth rate in two consecutive financial years, which is a dream come true for any industry. The interesting part is that the growth is in the calendar years, where we usually see a slowdown.
We continued to grow in the election year 2024 and the year- to-date, which is a new phenomenon in the last 15-20 years, given the challenges of the model code of conduct.
The growth is still ahead of us as the infrastructure is always behind demand in our country and this is true for airports, ports, roads etc.
We are currently reacting to demand and not going ahead of the demand and plan accordingly.
The Viksit Bharat plan launched by the government is yet to take full form, it is yet to hit the ground. Now the policy makers have warmed up to thinking 25-30 years ahead. I think we are in the right space. I also want to bring to light another issue, we talk of road infrastructure but what needs to be talked about is water – both water excess and water scarcity.
Inter-linking of rivers which has been a major idea in the works for 15 years only one project out of the many has been announced, Ken-Betwa. The interlinking project has to take off for the construction equipment industry to grow further. It will give the industry more volume as the scale of products would go up and also the variety of those products.
Viksit bharat 2047 is a dream of developed India by 2047, but to be viksit by 2047 the infrastructure needs to be ready 10 years ahead i.e. 2037-2038 otherwise the dividend will not come into the economy.
You mentioned that there is a need for more large and medium sized construction equipment, what kind of opportunity does it provide for a company like yours?
Volvo construction equipment has been in India for 26 years, for us India is like a home market and we are a fairly well recognized brand and earth moving is our core competence and we have huge opportunities coming from that. Our market share is quite large at the moment and we will continue to grow. We are also going for mid-range products and more than 70% of that is localized. We intend to double our market share with this product and many other such products in the next two to five years time frame.
Volvo will capitalize on India's opportunity and use it as a base for growing our business in the world. We can tap many developing as well as developed markets from here.
We have to develop our supply chain to be able to double our market share and that's what we are focused on. Also what is critical is that the brand is made accessible to the customers.
Which are the countries you would supply to ?
A Our focus is first India and as the product is more accepted and as the global demand picks up we will export. We already export some of our products to Southeast Asian countries, Africa and Latin America and we intend to follow similar geographies for future products also.
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