Hyundai Construction Equipment India Private Limited (HCEI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries of Korea, is planning to expand its Rs 300-crore construction equipment plant in Pune at a cost of an additional Rs 700 crore.
The expansion project has been envisaged for diversifying into manufacture of power equipment like generators, windmills, switchgears and transformers. The existing unit has a capacity to scale up production up to 10,000 excavators per annum.
HCEI managing director, JS Kim, said the company was currently conducting a feasibility study of entering the Indian power equipment market, which was expected to be completed by this year-end. Meanwhile, it has sought an additional 125 acres of land from the Maharashtra government near its existing 50-acre manufacturing plant for this purpose.
On Tuesday, HCEI inaugurated its southern regional office here, which will serve the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala Addressing a press conference on this occasion, Kim said the company would be rolling out 20 tonne excavator from its Pune plant this month, while 11 tonne and 8 tonne excavators would be produced from 2009 and 2010 respectively. Other models of excavators in the company's stable (ranging up to 80 tonne) would be imported from Korea.
According to HCEI head-marketing, Suvendu Moitra, the company expects to corner a share of 15 per cent in the Indian excavators market in four years when the annual sales of excavators are projected to be around 35,000 units.
Stating that the excavators market in India was growing at about 30 per cent per annum, Moitra said that 14,000 excavators were expected to be sold in the country this year as against the sale of 9,667 units in 2007.
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"South India accounts for nearly 40 per cent of excavators business. If we are not successful in south, perhaps we will not be successful in India," he said.
So far, HCEI has appointed 17 dealers in the country of which five are in the southern region. Across the country, the company would be appointing 21 dealers.