Earth Moving Machinery in India


Indian Economy has faced the lowest GDP Growth in the year 2012-2013 in a span of Ten Years as per the Minister of State for Finance and the Indian Government is taking steps to revive the economy in which a very crucial step is infrastructural development which has lead to increase in demand of Earth Moving Equipments.

Earth Moving Equipments includes range of machineries like bulldozers, skid steer loaders, wheeled loading, backhoe loaders, shovels, loaders, excavators, dump trucks etc. which are used for various purposes like infrastructure construction, power, building construction and mining. Earth moving equipments comprise about 65 percent of the total construction equipment industry and it is growing day by day.

The major demand in India is of Crawlers Excavators & Backhoes Loaders. Some of the equipment manufacturers present in India are JCB, BEML, Hitachi, Volvo, Hyundai, Escorts, Terex, CAT, L&T Komatsu so on and so forth. The machines being very technology oriented there are no local manufacturers in the market hence the pricing is on a higher side compared to other countries, though the manufacturers have evolved the designs of the equipments to suit Indian needs and conditions. 

As mining industry in India is facing lot of governmental issues which in turn has lead to decrease in demand of earthmoving equipments but growing infrastructural projects is keeping the figures on the positive side. Cramped Urban areas have lead to an increase in demand of compact excavators and other smaller versions of the equipments which has given the manufacturers new horizon to work in.

Earth Moving Equipment Manufacturers are trying to induce the Indian Government to include earth moving equipments in Focus Product Scheme which incentivise exports of such products which have high export intensity / employment potential, so as to offset infrastructure inefficiencies and other associated costs involved in marketing of these products. Irregular taxation structure across the country has lead to a little discontent in the manufacturers as there are lot of operational difficulties and higher taxes has to be paid which cannot be recovered from the customers. Indian market is likely to expand to $9 – 10 Billion by 2015. 

The support industry for repair and maintenance for earth moving equipments are still in a nascent stage as only manufacturers are taking care of it in the present times and there is no local industry for the purpose. Some machines can be managed and repaired remotely from the customer care by using the telematics systems but when operating in remote areas, the lack of satellite networks and associated infrastructure creates a hurdle. Growth of electronic & hydraulics industry also affects the earth moving equipments industry and efforts are put in to develop and expand the knowledge base and new technologies. Production of Spare parts is also of concern for the Earth moving manufacturers as importing the spare parts increases the costs thus loosing the competitive advantage.

For the advancement and the betterment of the industry various measures are being taken like fiscal incentives, export promotion, diversified products, cost competitiveness etc. The Industry is likely to grow leaps and bounds in the coming year but the support infrastructure and activities should simultaneously grow to accompany the increasing demand.

Author: Ankur Mitna