Construction equipment companies are smiling as demand from core sectors like roads, railways, irrigation, energy and other sectors for their products is picking up, said top officials of industry majors.
Major industry players like Schwing Stetter India and Ajax Engineering are expanding their capacities to cash in on the impending surge in demand.
"It is smiling time for us. Business during September and October was better than corresponding period of 2019. Similarly, November business is also looking good," VG Sakthikumar, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter India, told IANS.
According to Sakthikumar, the machines of the rental players have got deployed in projects.
"The demand for construction equipment is picking up for the past couple of months and it is expected to accelerate further owing to the demand from sectors like roads, railways, energy, irrigation and others," Jagadish Bhat, Managing Director and CEO, Ajax Engineering, told IANS.
Both Bhat and Sakthikumar said trade enquiries for their machines have picked up.
"The demand is from highways, railways, metros, and sectors. Bulk of the proposed $1 trillion investment mentioned in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will happen next year," Sakthikumar said.
The companies are hoping to close this fiscal with better revenues than what they had expected when the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown happened.
"Last year, we closed with a turnover of about Rs 1,730 crore. This year, we hope to close with a business of Rs 1,400-1,500 crore," Sakthikumar said.
Schwing Stetter India makes concrete mixers and other machinery used in construction works. It also sells earthmoving equipment of XCMG, China.
The Indian company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of German group Schwing Stetter. The German group is owned by the Chinese XCMG group, which is ranked sixth globally among the construction equipment machinery makers.