JCB India expects to double its manufacturing capacity to around 170,000 construction equipment machines annually by 2030, as the company expects sustained demand from the domestic infrastructure build-out as well as growing global markets, JCB India managing director and CEO Deepak Shetty told FE.
British construction equipment maker JCB currently has manufacturing capacity of around 85,000 machines a year in India, with the expansion expected to cater to both domestic and global markets.
“Today the capacity is around 85,000 machines. And by 2030, we should expect that we’ll double the capacity,” Shetty said.
Industry Growth Forecast
The capacity expansion comes as JCB India expects the construction equipment industry to grow faster this financial year. Shetty said the industry is now expected to grow between 9% and 12% in the current financial year, higher than his earlier estimate of around 7%.
The industry had a weak FY26, with total equipment sales declining around 2% year-on-year to 136,995 units, compared with 140,191 units in FY25, according to industry body Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (ICEMA) data.
Shetty expects JCB to grow faster than the overall industry, by around 1–2 percentage points. If the industry grows by 9–10%, he expects JCB’s growth to be around 12–14%.
Shetty attributed the demand outlook to continued government spending on infrastructure, while stressing that construction equipment demand is no longer limited to roads. Railway expansion, ports, rural infrastructure, water projects and other government-led investments are creating additional opportunities for equipment manufacturers.
He said JCB is working with the Railway Ministry to adapt existing equipment for railway applications. The company is engineering attachments that would allow machines such as backhoe loaders to operate on railway tracks, enabling them to be used for both conventional construction and rail infrastructure work.
“What we are trying to do is rather than creating new products, the existing products, we are engineering some attachment, something like that. So then they can be used for multipurpose,” Shetty said.
JCB is also looking at technology for railway maintenance as train speeds increase and maintenance requirements rise.
Localisation Strategy
The company is simultaneously increasing localisation to reduce its exposure to imported components and higher logistics costs. Shetty said JCB’s backhoe loaders have around 96% localisation, while excavators have between 65% and 75%.
On pricing, Shetty said JCB has increased prices by around 3-4% cumulatively during the calendar year, despite higher input costs. The company has sought to offset some of the cost pressure through localisation and efficiency improvements rather than passing the entire increase on to customers.
“We are heavily focussed on localisation in India. Okay. What we used to import in dollars, we are trying to localise in India,” he said.
JCB invests between ₹200 crore and ₹500 crore annually in areas including R&D and capacity expansion, Shetty said.
JCB exported around 14,000 machines last year and is targeting 15–20% export growth this financial year, with the US accounting for a major share.
However, Shetty said disruptions in the Red Sea have increased transit times between Europe and India by around two weeks and have also affected container availability.
The company is also expecting the proposed construction-equipment incentive scheme to support further localisation and attract global component manufacturers to India.
Shetty said JCB’s India operations are increasingly becoming part of the company’s global supply chain, with the country exporting not only finished machines but also engines, transmissions, components and steel fabrications to overseas JCB facilities.