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India has done a marvelous job in road building and irrigation, opening new doors for infra equipment. Ashok Chhajer, Senior General Manager, OE Sales, Balkrishna Industries, shares how these initiatives have boosted sales.

At EXCON: It is an excellent platform to connect with customers – current and prospective customers, both. We hope the young generation from the college come and develop curiosity about these types of equipment and end up taking up careers that help in building and boosting skilled human resources for the future.

On display: This time, we have showcased some of its finest tires for construction and earthmoving equipment namely the E4 EARTHMAX SR468 TL and L5 EARTHMAX SR53 TL. Along with the newly introduced rubber tracks for the compact track loaders. BKT is the first company in India to have designed and indigenously developed rubber tracks for agricultural applications, which we introduced in the year 2021, and for construction equipment, introduced recently in 2022.

Addressing customer needs: Being a global company, we do not look at what is going to be beneficial for either our Indian clients or global clients – we cater to everyone. We foresee the rubber tracks business to grow multi-fold and hence, we’ve entered into agriculture and construction simultaneously.

Harnessing technology: Automation is the top priority in all our plants, which emphasises technological upgradation of existing equipment and installation of automated material handling systems. It improves efficiency and product quality, and in the long term, it pays off.

Areas of opportunity: GatiShakti and Make in India are some fantastic initiatives by the Government of India. We are already doing well in the mining sector allowing us to keep expanding our range – such as the 240-tonne giant dump truck, the largest dump truck available in India.

The price rise challenge: Price rise is a challenge not only from the raw material cost perspective but also in inbound logistics as well as outbound logistics. It has impacted us too and has forced us to increase our prices.