Escort Construction Equipment, part of the Rs 3,000-crore Escorts Group, is confident that the infrastructure sector spends over the next four years will double the construction equipment industry's revenue to over Rs 36,000 crore.

Mr Rajesh Sharma, Vice-President and Head Marketing, Sales and Product Support, Escorts Construction Equipment, said the building equipment business as such had been doubling every four years. Currently, the business was about Rs 18,000 crore, of which Rs 12,500 crore was earthmoving equipment, cranes Rs 2,000 crore, road compacting equipment Rs 2,000 crore and construction concreting machinery the balance.

Referring to cranes, Mr Sharma said about 12,000 units were sold in India last year comprising 11,000 of the pick-and-carry category (between five and 23 tonnes), 200 of rough terrain cranes and the rest comprising truck and slew cranes.

Escorts sold about 7,000 units worth Rs 1,000 crore (October 2010 to September 2011). Asked whether he was seeing a drop in off-take due to the overall slowdown in economy, Mr Sharma said no dip in sales has been seen so far.

Escorts has a marketing tie-up with Spain's Linden Comansa for sales and service of high-end Comansa tower cranes, whose prices range from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 2 crore. The cranes are deployed in power, infrastructure and high-rise real estate construction.

The modular flat-top cranes of Comansa are sold in 40 countries and its joint venture plant in China makes over 14,000 units of which 90 per cent is local consumption. In India, the demand is just about picking up and 15 such cranes have been sold to majors such as L&T, BGR Energy and B E Billimoria. Escorts expects the demand to grow exponentially in five years to about 600 units. “We hope to capture a third of market share of 200-225 units in 2015 when the total demand will be over 600 machines,” he said.

Mr Martin Echevarria, Director-Commercial, Linden Comansa, said despite Comansa cranes being 30 per cent more expensive, it had distinct advantages in terms of operation and maintenance, besides requiring less headroom to work in.

Mr Sharma said though safety standards for cranes were yet to be spelt out in India, the Comansa cranes adhered to EU's standards as also to the EN 14439 norms of the US.

TRAINING SCHOOLS

Along with the commercial side, Escorts has set up a training school for operation and maintenance of the cranes as there is a huge shortage of trained crane operators, especially for the sophisticated machines. It has also tied up with the Delhi and Assam governments to provide faculty and machinery for the facilities established by the States. Escorts own school in Bangalore has trained over 2,500 operators last year and the Delhi school about 175.

Escorts has manufacturing facilities at Faridabad and is looking to set up one more plant. “Currently, we are open to any location and our requirement is 20-30 acres. However, the decision will depend on the facilities the state governments offer,” Mr Sharma added.

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