OREANDA-NEWS. January 23, 2013. Construction machinery equipment company Tata Hitachi Construction Equipment Machinery Company Ltd is seeking a bigger pie of the country’s equipment market, while increasing exports.

The 40:60 per cent venture of the Tata group and Japanese conglomerate Hitachi expects to grow its share to about 42 per cent over the next three years by launching new models and offering enhanced ownership experience, Rana Sinha, Managing Director of Tata Hitachi venture, said.

The company currently has a share of about 37 per cent.

Launching a high-powered excavator ZAXIS 220LC, he said that the focus of the company will be to offer superior quality products, high fuel efficiency, low maintenance cost and quality services.

“With a large network of service centres, we will be able to make a difference to the buyer. This will help us gain share in a market which is seeing increased competition from multinational corporations such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo, JCB and few Chinese companies. The Chinese companies such as Samy are coming up with products and aggressive pricing, which adds to the competition,’’ he said.

Construction equipment market

The country’s construction equipment, now estimated to be about Rs 22,000 crore, had been growing at a compounded annual growth rate of over 30 per cent during the infrastructure boom phase i.e. during 2003-2008. However, thereafter, the growth of construction equipment industry has been sluggish, almost remaining flat.

However, most of the construction equipment industry players believe that the market will get better from this year onwards as infrastructure sector begins to grow.

“We have also begun to export to some select markets from the new manufacturing base. The volumes will slowly go up,’’ he said.

The new product launched at a price of about Rs 50 lakh is ideally suited for excavation work for the construction of roads, mining related business. It is feature packed and enables the owners to closely monitor its performance through GPS systems installed.