LeeBoy India benefits from having a local manufacturing facility to effectively cater to the local and export markets. K Sunil Kumar, President, LeeBoy India Construction Equipment, shares more… Opportunities in 2020: The inspiring speech of Roads and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari during the inauguration of Excon has boosted the confidence of the construction equipment industry. While we see a lot of opportunity on the anvil, faster implementation of projects would give an impetus to the industry. Substantial investments are expected, especially in the road sector in the coming year, and this should pull up the demand for the construction equipment industry. Market challenges: Challenges in infrastructure projects seeking clearances need to be looked into. However, the moment the projects get cleared, you will see the demand going up. The second major problem is financing. Although there is demand, the financial closure of projects can be slightly restructured in terms of flexibility and easy finance for the customers. Government support in terms of faster release of funds would also help in faster implementation of infrastructure projects, which will create demand for the construction equipment industry. Enhancing productivity: We make sure that our machine uptime is always the highest, which will ensure productivity. We have our dealers spread across the country with the required stock of spares and service engineers to assist our customers. There are also inbuilt technical features that ensure enhanced productivity. We have launched a new motor grader with 10 ft Mould Board primarily for small roads, and PMGSY road projects. Skill development initiatives: We have trained operators located at all the regions to train the customer’s operators in terms of better operations of the machine. When we sell a machine, we send our operator with the machine for a week or two along with the customer’s operator so that the knowledge can be transferred in terms of the better operations to enhance productivity. Future plans: Through domestic manufacturing, we are creating great value for our customers in India because they are getting a world-class product in terms better features and critical components like engine, axles, transmission, etc, from reputed international suppliers. Also, since it is manufactured in India, we are in a position to offer better value for money. We also feel that because of having an Indian manufacturing base, there is an opportunity to look overseas because the acceptance for Indian products is increasing globally. We are looking at the South-east Asian countries, the Middle East and Africa for more exports. Going forward, we are trying to augment our product range to give better choice and value for our customers.