Dheeraj Panda, Vice President and Business Head, Sany Heavy Industry, speaks on the company’s technological improvement, its excavator business, concrete and road equipment, and more...

One pathbreaking offering: The hallmark of Sany’s growth around the world and particularly in India has been technological improvements made in all our product lines. We invest nearly 7 per cent of our turnover in R&D every year. Our excavators give optimum fuel efficiency with best-in-class productivity thanks to the dynamic optimisation matching control system (DOMCS), which matches the engine power and external load demand. 

Demand drivers in 2019: We see major demand coming from road and highway projects, railways and metros, bridge and tunnels, mining, ports, airports, inland waterways, irrigation and smart cities across the country. Excavators, concrete equipment, road equipment and hoisting solutions will witness continues demand owing to these ambitious programmes of the Government of India. 

Announcement contributing to the company’s growth in 2018: We have worked extensively on our dealer network to extend its reach immensely. We are also working to build the capability of our team to present products and provide service to our customers in a much better way. All these initiatives have been accepted well by our customers and we received a good response from all user segments. 

Challenge for the company in 2019: Owing to the upcoming elections, growth might be hampered for a month or two, though we are geared up to grow in the Indian market with the right products. 

Key strategy to success in 2019: We are working to increase our product range and introduce new products in all segments at practically every price point. We have launched 14 new products across the excavator, concrete, road and crane segments in the recently concluded bauma Conexpo. We are also working towards localisation of our products to meet customer demands better. The effort is to continuously upgrade and expand our manufacturing capacity to meet the burgeoning demands of customers.

Recommendation for growth of the construction equipment market: In the past couple of months, the infrastructure sector is seeing some stress on the finance front. If the finance sector and fund flows for project works are improved, it would help the industry grow.