Ashok Leyland: At The Forefront Of India's Tipper Market

“Apart from coal and other mining applications, road construction, earthwork and irrigation are significantly contributing to the expansion of tipper trucks market in the country”. Mr. Anuj Kathuria, President - Global Trucks at Ashok Leyland, talks on the gradual migration of demand towards higher engine power and payload and other aspects relating to tippers in the domestic market.

Excerpts:

How unique is the heavy-duty tipper trucks segment, mining applications in particular, in terms of customer requirements? How are you adapting to the evolving needs of the market?

When it comes to mining, the key customer requirements are uptime, durability and lowest cost of operation. The tippers need to operate over long duty cycles, providing maximum productivity in tough operating conditions. Coal mines are one of the major users of these tippers. However, this application may be accounting for not more than 10 per cent of the total industry volume roughly. Road construction, earthwork and irrigation are the major contributors, and have almost 55-60 per cent share in the tipper segment. Other leading applications would be iron ore, gypsum for cement, and quarries. We have understood this market as a whole and are working on a new offering to compete in all of these applications.

How do you see the tipper segment growing? Can you share us the sales figures of construction tippers and heavy-duty mining tippers in FY 2017-18?

Mainly driven by infrastructure and GDP growth, tippers contribute approximately 25-27 per cent to the TIV, which is up from 20 per cent earlier. Continued focus of the government on infra development would ensure a steady growth in the future. In FY17-18, the total industry volume for tippers was around 61,000. 25T dumpers contributed to around 65 per cent of this volume. Around 2,500 heavy duty or high horse power tippers were sold in FY17-18.

What is the growth and export potential of your tipper products?