The Hindu : Business : ECEL proposes fresh investment

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 01, 2005

Business

Business

ECEL proposes fresh investment

Special Correspondent

The company will focus on mobile cranes

BANGALORE: Escorts Construction Equipment Ltd. (ECEL) has planned additional investments as the demand for construction equipment is not being met by the industry, which as such is growing by over 30 per cent.

Disclosing this at a press conference on Wednesday at EXCON (exhibition of construction equipment) here, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, ECEL, Vikram Sharma, said that last year the industry sold about 18,000 units of construction and earth moving equipment valued at Rs. 200 crore, and the projection was that it would go up by 30 per cent, year-on-year, up to 2010.

However, the units sold in India were much less than 2.20 lakh sold in China last year, indicating that infrastructure projects here needed to be accelerated.

Mr. Sharma, who announced the launch of HP216, a high speed travelling crane (45 kmph) at the trade fair, said Escorts would focus on mobile cranes which accounted for nearly 65 per cent of its business. Escorts was into four basic product categories — mobile cranes, compactors, loaders and fork lifts.

The company had a turnover of Rs. 300 crore and was likely to touch 2,700 units in sales, up from 1,400 units last year. It exported about eight per cent of its production to neighbouring countries and the Middle East.

Mr. Sharma, who is also the Chairman of the Indian Earthmoving and Construction Industry Association (IECIAL), said the growth potential existed, but there were deterrents such as inflexible labour laws, no separate earmarking of funds for infrastructure projects, lack of proper disbursement and monitoring mechanism and red-tapism.

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