Multi-product engineering company Greaves Cotton has tied up with Japanese company Nikko for fabrication work and is expanding its product range in the construction equipment segment, a top company official said Saturday.
The company is also hoping to start exports of concrete pumps to Samil of South Korea from whom it has bought the technology.
"Most of the fabrication work will be done in India for the asphalt hot mix plant for which we have tied up with Nikko, Japan. The control systems, burners and other critical items will be from Nikko," R.Nandagopal, chief executive officer, construction equipment business, told reporters here.
The Rs.1,873 crore turnover Greaves Cotton has three plants near here- one to roll out road construction equipment and two for cement concrete ready mix machines, batching plants.
According to Nandagopal, the company is the process of exploring the market for the premium machines.
Greaves Cotton launched three models of S-Valve concrete pumps designed for infrastructure concreting operations.
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These equipment are used for heavy duty construction activities in high rise commercial/residential buildings and infrastructure work sites such as tunnels, dams, bridges and others.
Sunil Pahilajani, managing director, said the company will be selling concrete pipes to Samil as early possible. "We hope to start exports to Samil during the course of this year. The import content in these machines is currently at 30 percent which will go down in the future."
The market size for concrete pumps is around 700 units and the company's has a share of 8-10 percent. "Our plan is to increase that share to 20 percent in 2 to 3 years' time," said Nandagopal.
"We have the advantage of having good after sales network across the country which multi-national companies (MNC) in this segment lack," Pahilajani said.
About the transit mixers market, Nandagopal said the market size has gone down due to the overall economic slowdown.
"Last year the market size for transit mixers was 2,000 units down from 2,200 units in the previous year. During the first quarter of the current year the market size is 400 units. The market for the whole year is expected to be less than 2,000 units," he said.
Greaves Cotton finds the automobile market challenging as it supplies diesel engines for various vehicle manufacturers.
Asked about the company's plans to supply engines for quadracycles, Pahilajani said the company has a solution for such vehicles.