How's been the market for Case India in 2016-17 in terms of business numbers? What are your projections for 2017-18?
The market has been great for CASE in this year. In the journey of more than 25 years in India we have seen the difficult years as well as the growth years of Indian construction equipment. After a recent 4-year slowdown, we experienced a good growth last year in line with the industry. We were actually preparing ourselves for it with a lot of product upgradations and launches in the last couple of years. Owing to our strategic positioning we could leverage the growth in demand to our advantage by achieving a higher as percentage growth than the industry at large.
The long-term outlook for the Indian market is very promising with huge potential. We expect significant growth and are positive in terms of increase in volume for the next year.
The Indian customer is becoming increasingly discerning and demands products with higher efficiency and performance, especially in applications where the project needs to be delivered within a certain timeframe. We have a complete family of construction equipment products. And, with the market evolving, we offer our support by using our skills and expertise at their best.
What are your domestic sales to exports ratio?
CASE India sells and supports a full line of quality construction equipment around the world to more than 30 countries. This is achieved by making the most advanced technological products which are suited not only to the export market but also to the Indian customer requirements of high fuel efficiency and productivity.
In essence, we make products which are of a truly global outlook with a quality matching the best in the world. The export volumes of CASE India also have a correlation with the WCM efficiency of the Pithampur plant and this has had a positive outlook so far. An exact share will be difficult to arrive at as there is a varying degree of export penetration across different product platforms. However, it is reasonable to assume that the export sales are catching up and are on a growing trajectory.
Which are your key exports markets and how do you see the exports business growing in the years to come?
CASE India is part of the highly industrialised world of CNH Industrial. Across its 12 brands, 64 manufacturing plants, 50 research and development centers and a workforce of more than 64,000 people, CNH Industrial is present in 190 countries giving it a unique competitive position.
CASE India plays its role in this overall worldview of plants and markets and is distributing the products made in India to more than 30 countries in addition to India which are at a similar level of emission level regulation as India.
While it is too early to assess the overall impact of GST implementation, what is your opinion about it?
GST aims to bring one uniform tax across the country, eliminating several layers of tax incidence. Any massive change such as this is bound to have some hiccups in the beginning due to different levels of understanding among the customers from different segments that are impacted differently with the change in tax. However, on a macroscopic scale this will result in a much more business friendly environment with the enlargement of a homogenous market across India. Summarily we have a positive outlook towards this reform and its consequent impact on Indian Infrastructure Development.
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