Tata Motors Maintains Lead In Tipper Segment

Strong products and unfaltering customer service delivering the right results

- N. Balasubramanian

The domestic CV market had a roller coaster ride in FY19. If there was one segment that outperformed the others, by quite a distance, it was tippers which grew by a staggering 48 per cent in FY19. The CV market leader Tata Motors has traditionally enjoyed a very strong position in the tipper space despite growing competition over the years. We spoke to Mr. Rajesh Kaul, Vice President & Product Line Head, M&HCV, Tata Motors, to find out how the company’s tipper biz fared in FY19 and how it plans to hold on to its lead in the current year.

Excerpts:

How has Tata Motors’ tipper business performed since the start of 2019? Does the infra sector continue to drive the sale of tippers?

The medium & heavy commercial vehicle industry in India (trucks and tippers of 16-ton GVW and above) has witnessed an 11% growth for FY18-19 as compared to FY17-18. The tipper segment has fuelled this growth with 48% growth in volumes in the same period.

Faster execution of the construction projects is one of the major reasons for this growth. Government spending has increased multi-fold on infrastructure and road development projects. Building of Smart cities, railway projects, SEZ projects, port and port road development works, irrigation projects and other infrastructure projects are leading to a growth for tippers.

Mining tippers largely remain in the 6x4 category where we have been seeing a shift from 4x2 to 6x4 and in some cases to 8x4 configurations. Whereas for surface movement applications the shift is to 8x4, 8x2, 10x2 & Tip trailers (upto 55T GCW).

Tippers TIV (All India) for Q4 for FY 2018-19 months (Jan’19-Mar’19) has been around 8,500 per month, registering a YOY growth for the same period of 23%. This is good given the fact that Q4 - FY 2017-18 had considerably high volumes.