THE TIPPING POINT

In an industry talk session, Sandip Chakroborty, Managing Director, JCBL Ltd. speaks to Ashish Bhatia about the positive growth outlook for the tipper segment.

- Ashish Bhatia

Q. Take us through the teething issues faced since the company set out to build the tipper business?

A. The tipper business is majorly dependent on the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) business since they control the chassis sales. In India, it is mostly sold as a fully built vehicle. To produce consistent volume, you need to align with major OEMs of the country. It is also vulnerable to highly volatile steel prices (more so recently). One must be very efficient in the production process as the margins are thin and profits are controlled by the major commercial vehicle manufacturers in a highly price-sensitive industry. A strong Research and Development (R&D) and Design Centre with continuous value engineering is the key to success.

Q. Give us a snapshot of your production volumes over 2020-21 and Year-To-Date (YTD) 2022.

A. In 2020-2021, our volumes dropped because of the pandemic. We went from 4000 units in 20182019 to 2100 units in 2020-2021. However, the market is looking very positive since the last quarter of 2021-22 and this year 2022-23, we hope to achieve volumes of more than 6000 units. We have already breached the 1400 mark as of July 2022 and the future projections are in line with our plans.

Q. How have sales fared in comparison and what has been the capacity utilisation over these quarters?

A. As mentioned, the outlook is quite positive, and we are at more than 80 per cent of our current capacity utilisation. To advance this, we are creating an additional production capacity by adding another 50,000 sq. ft. of production space. The new facility is expected to be up and running in the third quarter of this year (Q3-2022).