‘Manufacturing in India more cost effective than China’: CNH

New Delhi: The manufacturing environment for construction equipments like excavators, loader and compactors, in India, is more cost effective and efficient than China, and the reciprocal tariffs imposed by the United States is likely to give a competitive edge to the Indian producers, senior executives of the New York Stock Exchange-listed CNH said.

Emre Karazli, Vice President Construction Segment, APAC (Asia Pacific) & AME (Africa and Middle East), CNH, said India’s proactive approach to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the US will provide advantage to the Indian exporters.

“The way India is driving its politics towards North America, I think will give India some competitive advantage. It is more on the positive side for us,” Karazli told DH at a CASE Construction plant at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh.

He said around 50 per cent construction equipment output of CNH produced in India is exported to over 100 countries worldwide including the United States and European countries. CNH manufactures construction equipment under brand CASE Construction Equipment at its Pithampur facility.

“The flexibility and friendly approach that we see here is probably much better than any other construction plant that we see in the world including in Europe, North America and Latin America,” Karazli said.

Shalabh Chaturvedi, Managing Director, CASE India & SAARC, said shipments from India to the US have not been impacted so far. “Earlier the tax was zero in the US on our products. Now it is 10 per cent, but this is for other countries also. So there is no major impact so far,” he said.

Chaturvedi informed that the US accounts for around 10 per cent of CASE Construction Equipment’s exports. Referring to higher tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump administration on Chinese products, Chaturvedi said it would be positive for India.

He said India’s advanced emission standards have prepared the construction equipment manufacturers for competition in the global markets.

“India is now moving to stage 5 (Bharat Stage V or BS-V). South Korea is stage 5. All the other countries in Asia and also Australia are at lower emission levels. North America is at level 4. European markets are at stage 5. So at our current standard we can export to all markets,” said Chaturvedi.

CASE Construction recently rolled out its BS-V compliant machines from its Pithampur manufacturing facility.

Chaturvedi said a well developed supply chain ecosystem was an advantage for manufacturers in China. He claimed that has improved significantly for construction equipment manufacturing in India also.