Tadano and Escorts hook up in India

Equipment manufacturers Tadano and Escorts have formed a joint venture company to manufacture rough terrain and truck mounted cranes in India, writes Partha Pratim Basistha.

Tadano Escorts India (TEI) in Faridabad, Haryana state, will manufacture 20 and 80 tonne capacity truck cranes and rough terrain cranes for the Indian market.

Japanese crane and access equipment manufacturer Tadano Ltd will hold a 51 per cent stake in TEI with the remaining 49 % held by Escorts Limited, an Indian manufacturer of cranes, road construction and agricultural machinery.

The joint venture agreement was signed in New Delhi by Nikhil Nanda, Escorts Limited chairman and managing director, and Koichi Tadano, president and CEO at Tadano Ltd.

Commenting during the signing ceremony, Nikhil Nanda said, “The JV will leverage the cost effective frugal Indian engineering excellence of Escorts and world leading Japanese technology from Tadano to cater to an expanding Indian market for heavier, safer, sophisticated, and efficient truck and rough terrain cranes. The joint venture will enable us to reinforce our leadership in construction equipment space.”

Koichi Tadano said, “Tadano India Pvt. Ltd was established in 2012 for selling and servicing our mobile cranes. However, sales have been modest. The local, manufacturing merging Tadano’s superior technology, featuring, safety, quality and efficiency will provide us with a competitive edge. This will further enable us to leverage our market presence in India supported by Escorts’ wide distribution network.”

On the question of whether Tadano will also manufacture other crane types in India, Koichi Tadano said, “We will be gradually looking to introduce all our range of products for the Indian market. To cater for the Indian application and market requirements, the cranes, made under the JV will be engineered accordingly.”

Ajay Mandahr, Escorts Construction Equipment Business CEO, said, “Production under the JV is expected to commence at our Faridabad facility in the third quarter of this financial year. Fixtures will be imported from China for production.” The INR 600 million (US$ 8.5 million) joint venture entity will cater first for the Indian market followed by exports in due course.

Operations will begin in November 2018 and sales are forecast to reach INR 1,215 million ($17 million) by 2023.

Mobile crane sales in India increased 41 per cent last year to more than 7,700 units, according to a new report from Off Highway Research. Chris Sleight, OHR managing director, continued, ”Mobile cranes were the country’s third largest selling construction machines after backhoe loaders and crawler excavators. However, the market is dominated by locally manufactured pick & carry cranes, which accounted for 96 per cent of sales in 2017. Demand for conventional cranes remained level with 2016 levels at some 320 units.”

More on the Indian crane market can be found in the Off-Highway Research September 2018 Mobile Cranes India Equipment Analysis. The study includes sections on market size and trends, production, component sourcing, foreign trade, market shares, marketing and distribution, pricing, population and end-users and features a five-year sales forecast. All sections include detailed data tables and in-depth analysis of trends. The report is available to OHR subscribers or it can be bought as a stand alone publication. See: www.offhighway.co.uk or contact mail@offhighway.co.uk