Escorts forms joint venture with Japan's Tadano

Farm and construction equipment maker Escorts on Monday entered into a joint venture with Japan's biggest mobile crane manufacturer Tadano to produce higher capacity mobile cranes in the 20-80 tonnage category.

"The new joint venture with Tadano Group is a step towards catering to market demand for smarter, safer and bigger mechanized infrastructure solutions in the higher tonnage category", Escorts CMD Nikhil Nanda said after signing the deal.

The 51:49 joint venture between Tadano and Escorts respectively will leverage frugal Indian engineering excellence of Escorts and world leading Japanese technology from Tadano, Nanda said. The venture will be called Tadano Escorts India Pvt Ltd.

The JV, to come up adjacent to Escorts existing factory at Faridabad, will manufacture rough terrain cranes and truck mounted cranes in the 20 to 80 tonnage category. It will strengthen Escorts technology leadership in material handling equipment space.

"An initial capital investment of Rs 60 crore is planned for the JV which is likely to begin production in the third quarter of the current financial year. There is a market for 250 to 300 machines per year in India. The industry is growing at 15 to 20 per cent," Escorts Group COO Shailendra Agrawal told IANS.

The venture will cater to expanding market of big construction companies servicing metro projects, railways, oil and gas industry, smart city construction, solar power projects, mining, roads and bridges in India. Later, it plans to even export.

"Escorts has a strong technology legacy and diversified portfolio in construction equipment market and Tadano has a proven global technology and together we will cater to India and other growing economy", Tadano President and CEO Koichi Tadano said after signing the agreement with Nanda.

Currently, the major players in the domestic market for rough terrain cranes is Kolkata-based infrastructure equipment maker TIL and some Chinese companies led by heavy machinery maker Sany Group in the truck mounted crane segment.

Tadano has been selling its products made in Japan and Germany in India since 2012.

--IANS

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