Latest News | JCB Confident of Demand Revival on Govt Push for Infra Projects

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Earthmoving and construction equipment major JCB India on Tuesday said it is "cautiously optimistic" about the sales this fiscal as there are some "short term challenges" but is "confident" over demand coming back helped by opportunities created by the government's push on big infrastructure projects.

The company expects the demand for the construction machinery to come back moving forward and is ready to meet the demand, a top company official said.

Besides, in the export market, the company is witnessing "very good demand" for its machines around the world, which are manufactured here under Make-in-India, said JCB India CEO and Managing Director Deepak Shetty.

JCB India on Tuesday launched its all-new range of 10 CEV Stage IV compliant Wheeled Construction Equipment vehicles.

The new range comes with JCB's Telematics technology called JCB Livelink, which gives real-time updates about the machine's performance, its operating and health parameters in addition to its location.

When asked about demand scenario, Shetty said: "We remain very cautiously optimistic and we saw that as (we) went through the first wave ... particularly in Q4 of the calendar year 2020, the market came very strongly. We expect the market to come this year very strongly."

At the fag end of the second wave, there is a bit of nervousness on the possibility of a third wave and monsoon is also impacting.

"All these things, we look as short term challenges but the focus that our government has and the opportunity which we have on the infrastructure side, we are very confident as we move forward, the demand would come very strongly and we are ready as a company to meet the demand," Shetty said.

When asked about the volume, he replied, "As a company, we would not speculate on the volume but I am very confident that the numbers will start improving as move forward."

Over exports, Shetty said the company is witnessing a "massive growth" on the construction equipment side in the global market.

JCB India exports to more than 100 countries around the world. Make-in-India machines are very popular around the world. From the Jaipur facility, JCB is exporting to around 50 countries, Shetty added.

When asked about his outlook on the construction equipment machinery sector, he said the government has continued to focus on infrastructure. "In the budgets, for the first time, we saw there were announcements which were focused on the sector... capital expenditure and the focus, all of this has translated," Shetty said, adding that he expects more spending on the rural infrastructure.

"In the next one year, we are very bullish about the opportunity, which is there in our segment," he said adding "during at our various interactions at the government level, we continuously get assurance that this is would continue to get focused on."

Shetty said new railway lines are being set up and the network is being expanded with a lot of utilisation of construction machines.

Besides, the government is also augmenting the new land parcels, which are around railway stations and this would require machines because such projects would need mechanised support.

JCB, which has recently showcased hydrogen-fuelled combustion engine technology in the UK that emits no CO2, Shetty said in the Indian market, based on the present infrastructure, the company is focused on CNG platform from the alternate fuel point of view.

JCB India is a fully-owned subsidiary of UK-based J C Bamford Excavators.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)