七妹导航

With the government giving more focus on smart cities, we feel the other smaller cities will also develop parallelly and there will be demand for construction equipment, says B Lakshminarayana, Managing Director, Sri Sai Infra Equipment Pvt Ltd. Excerpts form the interview...

Could you brief us on your company and the services provided?
Sri Sai Infra Equipment does sales and product service activities of construction, mining and generators in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The company started modestly in 2008 as a small dealership and has expanded into a multi-product dealership company.

The people involved are all service-based with vast experience in construction and mining equipment sales, service and parts. We have full-fledged offices in Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam and resident engineers are based in Nellore catering to the clients at Krishnapatnam port and nearby customers. Please elaborate on the various construction equipment/brands you deal with.

What is the demand level for these equipment in the market?
We are dealers for Liugong India, the subsidiary of Guangxi Liugong machinery, internationally famous for their wheel loaders and manufacture almost 60,000 units per year and market world over. In India, Liugong has its manufacturing plant at Pithampur, near Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

We deal with wheel loaders ranging from 1.8 tonne, 3.5 tonne, 5 tonne and 8 tonne capacity, excavators ranging from 7 tonne to 35 tonne, motor graders (12 ft) and forklifts (1.5-10 tonne). The most popular models are the 3.5 tonne and the 5 tonne class loaders. The 920D excavator also is a reliable and productive machine, which presently is being imported and sold. There is a huge demand for the 12 ft class motor graders also which is required for infrastructure and road projects and also in mining for maintaining the haul roads.

We are also distributors for Graco, a US-based company having 70 per cent market share worldwide for their Contractor Equipment Division. We deal with airless spray painting machines used for infrastructure and building projects and road marking machines of Graco used for marking the highways and runways of major airports in India, which we import and sell.

We are also dealers for Fine Equipment rock breakers and crusher plants and units like jaw, cone, VSI, screens, ect of superior brands.

With the new capital for Andhra Pradesh announced, we feel there is a lot of potential for all the equipment in the coming years as this will take at least five years to become a full-fledged working capital with all amenities.

With the government giving more focus on smart cities, we feel all the other smaller cities will also develop parallelly and there will be demand for all these equipment. With SCCL taking up new coal blocks, we see a huge demand in mining in the near future.

What is the price range for each category of equipment? Who are your major customers? Are they more from the retail segment or corporate clients?
The price range for loaders range from Rs 26 lakh for 3.5 tonne capacity to around Rs 52 lakh for a 5-tonne capacity loaders and Rs 53 lakh for a 20-tonne excavator. Most of the corporate customers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and retail and port customers are our major customers.

Which territories/regions/markets do you operate in? What is the demand-supply scenario for the equipment from these markets?
We have customers from retails, corporate and port handling in Vishakapatnam, Krishnapatnam in Nellore and corporate customers in Hyderabad who execute works all over India like KNR Constructions, GVR Infra, IVRCL, Coastal Projects, GKC Projects, Unique Infra, etc, are some of the big corporate customers. We have supplied 22 numbers of 5 tonne capacity loaders to Zam Logistics, a Vizag-based client for their work at Krishnapatnam Port, Nellore and also to clients in the nearby power plants.

What is the approach from the customers regarding sophisticated and advanced features in equipment vis-a-vis cost?
Customers presently are very price sensitive to take work orders and competitive bids. To keep profitability and safety in mind, they look for machines with high quality and competitive pricing. Keeping these factors in view, Liugong has come up with quality and reliable products which are safe and made for the Indian conditions without compromising on quality vis-a-vis the sophisticated machines which are highly priced and have no support.

What are the challenges you face in the current industry scenario?
Present market conditions are not so favourable after the division of the state as no major projects have been announced at the state and Central level, while most of the major contractors being from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. We are hopeful that with the new initiatives being taken by the new government, new projects will be announced shortly.

Please elaborate on your sales performance last year. How is the trend this year?
We have a done well this year compared to last year as we are focusing more on the retail segments and we are hopeful of exceeding our targets.

How do you look at the demand from various infrastructure sectors, real estate, and mining?
As mining, road and metro rail segments are picking up, we are looking into aggressively planning our strategies to cater to all these sectors.

What are the financing options that you provide for your customers?
We have financial tie-ups with most of the banks and financial institutions for funding to customers.

What are your future plans?
We already have plans to start more offices in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and to start a workshop for taking up the repairs of engines, transmissions and other related systems as the machines supplied by us have clocked ample hours for major repairs/overhauls.

How do you assess the future potential/opportunities?
The Central and state governments are taking necessary steps to infuse funds and build a new Capital for Andhra Pradesh and also identified various places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for developing them into smart cities.

We deal with wheel loaders ranging from 1.8 tonne, 3.5 tonne, 5 tonne and 8 tonne capacity, excavators ranging from 7 tonne to 35 tonne, motor graders (12 ft) and forklifts (1.5-10 tonne). The most popular models are the 3.5 tonne and the 5 tonne class loaders.

With the new capital for Andhra Pradesh announced, we feel there is a lot of potential for all the equipment in the coming years as this will take at least five years to become a full-fledged working capital with all amenities.