Construction equipment business to grow in H2: JCB

BENGALURU:  Construction equipment firm JCB, which recently inaugurated a Rs 1,000 crore facility in Vadodara, said it will continue to innovate, invest in innovation and alternate fuel. Last year, it launched many new products and planning to launch machines, which are fuel efficient and that help cut the burden of inflationary challenges.

“In the last five years, we would have improved fuel efficiency by 25%. We have focused on giving better fuel efficiency, reducing maintenance cost so that overall cost of ownership of the product becomes cheaper than the previous product,” said Deepak Shetty, CEO and MD, JCB India.

Shetty, who was in Bengaluru to participate in CII EXCON, a construction equipment trade fair, said the new facility in Vadodara will employ 1,200 people, and half of them will be women. JCB has six factories in India and 34% of its employees in Jaipur are women.

The construction equipment industry has gone through challenges, especially during the pandemic period, as the industry fell by 8%. Shetty says the second half of this year will bring us back to the pre-covid times, and that a rise in input costs is a concern.

JCB is exporting to over 110 countries from India. “Last year, our exports grew by nearly 300%. Though there was a little bit of slowdown in the market, we were able to supply. When we talk of exports, be it in any sector, we speak about exports to South Asia, Latin America or Africa. We are exporting from India to the US, Europe and Australia,” he said. Talking about JCB LiveLink, an IoT- based technology, where one can connect with machines, he said more than 2 lakh machines are connected.