In conjunction with globally renowned manufacturers, Voltas Ltd’s Mining & Construction Equipment Division offers customers an extensive range of equipment including mining excavators from Caterpillar; dump trucks from Terex Equipment; track mounted crushers, screens from PowerScreen and crawler cranes from Kobelco Japan. At the IMME in Kolkata, Sharad Thussu, Vice President, Mining & Construction Equipment Division, Voltas Ltd offered Shrikant Rao an understanding of the mood in the mining sector and the prospects for his company going forward.
Gives us the understanding of the mood that is currently prevailing and the prospects in the mining sector?
I would say it is mixed. Yes, the mood is that there is lot of equipment buying that is going to happen, but it will be led primarily by Coal India and its subsidiaries, and the PSUs. Private mining has not really picked up – whatever the private miners are doing they are acting as sub-contractors to Coal India. But the plans of NTPC, Steel Authority of India, and the PSUs are going through. The award of MDO contracts is picking up. Right now the large sized mining equipment market still rests with a few MDOs and Coal India. It has not really spread and there are only a few players who have the capacity to buy these large size equipment.
So what does that do to the business of players like Voltas?
Actually we are primarily into the area of equipment service. We have positioned ourselves as service providers to most of the customers. We have key accounts like Coal India, Tata Steel and many accounts in Africa where we provide equipment service for many customers like Jindal and BGR. On the equipment side we have the distributorship of Terex PowerScreen, LeeBoy and also Belaz which is doing well. Our philosophy is different – we are not a company that focuses on sales of products, we are basically in the area of providing service solutions. We are asset light and invest in surface infrastructure. We have a lot of technically trained manpower. In Mozambique, for example, we are handling the entire Caterpillar equipment fleet for our customers. Many times we are also collaborating with the OEMs also. So the focus is on providing solutions to customers.
Tell us of your strength here in India?
We have a pool of 200 technicians with us and then we have lot of manpower who are basically helping these technicians. We provide highly skilled engineers at all levels who provide these maintenance services. Equipped with a highly professional support engineering team, the division offers a variety of value added services like annual service contracts, operations and maintenance contracts, annual maintenance contracts, comprehensive maintenance contracts, complete overhauls and refurbishing and training for operators and maintenance crew at job sites.
We are directly linked as official distributors for companies like LeeBoy, PowerScreen and Belaz. We don’t claim to be an alternative to a Caterpillar or a Komatsu but if it is required that a customer wants his whole fleet to be addressed by a single point we do offer such services. And we do it cost-effectively.
So how much does a Tata name help here?
Of course, the Tata name is a big asset for us. We do business in the most ethical very fair and transparent manner. There is not even a single mining customer in India or in Africa who will have a negative opinion about Voltas. That is something which we can say with a lot of conviction and pride. We get a lot of inquiries from customers, but you know the scale has been large for us to pitch in. We can’t do a small fleet and the fleet has to be large and the project has to be of a longer duration. We are therefore also very selective.
The demands of the Indian market require a lot of equipment to be supplied the aftermarket challenge is also huge. So how does Voltas address that?
See we are not trying to spread ourselves too much. We engage with customers with whom we are working for 3-4 years. We are aware of their needs and challenges and try to address those. In many cases when a customer is not able to sort out a problem on his own we provide solutions. There are many ways. We are a customer driven company and are not product driven. Our emphasis is on customer relationship. That is our prime mantra.
Apart from mining, what are the other areas which you hope to offer support?
With PowerScreen we are heavily into road construction, an area where the market is booming.
What are the prospects going forward for the mining sector?
I won’t give you a rosy picture. I will say there will be moderate growth from non-coal India sectors. I believe there will be moderate growth for companies which are not PSUs like Coal India. Coal India, and its subsidiaries, will of course see tremendous growth in terms of equipment purchase. That will mean good business for us.