JOIN USSwedish heavy-duty vehicle major Scania Commercial Vehicles India is bullish on the coal mining segment in India, a top executive said.
Talking to Deccan Herald, Scania India Managing Director Anders Grundströmer said, “Mining is very important for Scania. This year, we have sold 750 trucks compared with 400 trucks last year...this is a huge growth for Scania.”
Grundströmer adds, “The coal mining segment is very important and a huge contributor to our business. We will also focus on limestone, mainly because most of the roads in India will be made of concrete and you need limestone on a large scale for this.”
Scania India is the biggest producer of mining trucks in the world for the Scania Group. “We have sold 750 units this year and we expect to grow by 20 per cent next year,” he said.
Grundströmer, who is also Scania Group Senior Vice President, explains, “With the introduction of e-auctions, we expect existing mining sites to re-open soon, and with this Goa and other places will join soon.”
Scania’s current market share in the premium mining segment is 35 per cent. Since 2008, Scania has sold 1,800 trucks in India, of which a large percentage are mining tippers. “Our target for 2015 is to sell 800 trucks, of which 700 will be mining tippers. The current localisation level for trucks is 65 per cent,” said Grundströmer. He said the concession given by the government is huge this year, and will continue for the next two years. This is because India will double the outputs (from mines) in the next five years. For the mining sector, we will look at all coal mining sites like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh in northern India, Hyderabad in the south, and Gujarat in the west.
According to Scania, India is the only market in the world that is currently growing in the mining segment because there is a huge domestic demand for coal, limestone, iron ore, etc. Other markets like Brazil, Indonesia, and Australia are going down, he said.
The company aims to promote the India plant as an export hub, catering to the demands of the South-east Asian markets.
Scania has a current production capacity of 2,500 trucks and 1,000 buses, and aims to double its capacity by 2020 with a target of selling 5,000 trucks and 2,500 buses annually. In the next five years, Scania will also expand its employee pool to 1,200 people at this facility.
The company inaugurated its first Industrial facility at Narasapura, Bengaluru, in October 2013, and inaugurated its first bus plant in March 2015. With a collective investment of Rs 300 crore, this facility serves as the centre of Scania’s Indian commercial operations. The service workshop and a central parts warehouse are housed at the same site.