Swedish heavy-duty truck and bus-major Scania has joined hands with engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) and aims to acquire a major market share in the Indian mining and construction equipment segment.
To start with, L&T would distribute Scania?s 8×4 multi-axle tipper trucks for the Indian mining industry. Currently, other three global heavy-duty vehicle majors Volvo, Daimler and Tatra are dominating the Indian market in this class of tippers.
The total market size of these tippers stood at around 650 units in 2006 and is expected to increase to 1,000 units in 2007, J P Nayak, member of the board and president (machinery & industrial products) of L&T said after launching the truck at Excon 2007, a CII organised Indian construction equipment and technology trade fair in Bangalore.
?We are expecting the segment comprising this class of multi-axle tipper trucks to grow at more than 30% in coming years on the back of heavy mining activities in India. We are targeting 25-35% market share in this segment with Scania’s product,? Nayak said.
With the Indian government deciding to add 78,000 mw power in the Eleventh Plan and another 82,000 mw in the Twelfth Plan, the requirement for coal as a fuel for mega power plants would increase. This will expand the size of the tipper truck market for the mining industry in India, he said.
Prized between Rs 58 lakh and Rs 65 lakh, he said the company plans to sell around 60-80 Scania tipper trucks by the end of March 2008. L&T would import the chassis from Scania?s global production centres and build body and hydraulic facilities locally. However, Nayak declined to disclose the identity of the company that would add value for Scania chassis in India.
Klas Dahlberg, vice-president of Scania for franchise and factory sales in Africa, Middle East and South Asia, said the company is expected to achieve annual sales of 700 trucks within a couple of years. ?With the construction and mining industry booming in India, we thought this would be the right time to tap potential in the Indian mining and construction segment with our heavy-duty tipper trucks,? Dahlberg said.
The construction and mining equipment business unit of L&T, which is headquartered in Bangalore, also markets the products manufactured by L&T Komatsu & Komatsu. With the new partnership with Scania, L&T is expected to further strengthen its presence in construction and mining sector.
