The Hindu Business Line : Terex Vectra to invest $4 m in Indian operations

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Mumbai Feb. 26 Terex Vectra, one of the leading manufacturers of construction equipment vehicles, has plans to invest $4 million in new models, employment recruitment and improvement in manufacturing standards and processes at its Noida plant, said Mr Amit Sood, General Manager (marketing and sales).

The two partners, Terex Corporation of the US and the Vectra group of the UK, who hold 50 per cent each in the equity of the company, will equally contribute the investment. The company was formed with an initial equity investment of $6.5 million.

For the forthcoming product portfolio, the company will introduce two variants of skidster loaders, one variant of the backhoe loader and a complete new range of vibratory compactors. These compactors are basically semi-knock down kits exported to countries like the US. The company will export six units by this fiscal-end and intends exporting 60 units in the coming fiscal (2007-2008). Currently, the vibrators are only for the export market and the company intends introducing them locally as and when the market matures.

Increasing workforce

Though the Noida plant has a production capacity of 8,000 units annually, the required blue-collar workforce is not sufficient to handle the sales target of 2000-odd units for 2007-08 and the company intends to recruit workers. In the domestic market, backhoe loader is the highest selling range from the Terex Vectra stable. The company started selling backhoe loaders in 2004-05 with annual sales of 139 units at a turnover of Rs 51 crore and now intends to close the current fiscal year with sales of 970 units. These loaders now have an indigenisation level of 75 per cent.

Improvement

The company will also be investing in improving manufacturing quality. "We need to continuously improve the quality of our product portfolio and for that, worldwide benchmarks in manufacturing processes are a must," said Mr Sood. Furthermore, Terex Vectra is going to expand its existing 32-dealership network to 40 by the coming fiscal.

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