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Feature - Piling Equipment
Piling up Clients
Has the piling equipment industry been affected by the slowdown?
What are its prospects for the latter half of 2009? CHARU
BAHRI takes a closer look.
You know what they say about not keeping all your eggs in
one basket? Well, the piling equipment industry certainly
benefits from serving a vast spectrum of customers. As a result,
vendors have reason to smile in spite of real-estate markets
being sluggish.
A potpourri of clients
Nitin Jajal, Country Manager, Mait India, counts the infrastructure
sector including power plants, metro rail, roads, airport
and port projects; industrial construction like steel plants;
and the real-estate sector as major clients of the piling
equipment industry. “Until last year,” he says,
“there was a greater demand from the real-estate sector,
but that has now gone down. Still, many infrastructure jobs
are works-in-progress despite the slowdown and many more are
in the offing.”
And for his part, Tejdeep Singh Sehmbey, Director, Rotary
Construction Machinery India, believes that the slowdown has
really not affected the industry thanks to the plethora of
infrastructural projects being executed or in the offing.
Hit by the slowdown
However, it is not as though the piling equipment industry
has not suffered at all because of the slowdown. Sanjoy Chakrabarty,
Managing Director, Soilmech Foundation Equipments Pvt Ltd,
believes that piling markets across the world have really
been shaken in the past six months since December 2008. “It
is only now that we are seeing some recovery in the market,”
he says, “although we have yet to revert to the level
of demand that existed in 2007 and 2008.”
Nevertheless, Chakrabarty is optimistic about the future.
“Looking at the current rate of projects unfolding in
the country, especially in the thermal power sector and the
steel plant industry in east India, which uses piling rigs
to construct greenfield plants, we believe the situation may
improve in the months to come.”
The election effect
The fact that 2009 is a general election year also seems to
have affected the industry. “The piling equipment market
has been somewhat sluggish in recent months but this is more
because of the elections and approaching monsoons than owing
to the economic slowdown,” believes Sunil Newatia, Managing
Director, Suretech Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.
He says the delay in project takeoffs because of the election
code of conduct has affected the overall equipment business
per se rather than a particular demand area. “Nevertheless,
current indicators are very positive and we expect the situation
to improve by the last quarter,” he adds.
Finance plays spoilsport
According to Jajal, unlike the sales of other construction
equipment, which have fallen more than 60 per cent, the market
for piling equipment has hardly been affected by the slowdown.
What’s more, he attributes the marginal drop in sales
to clients facing difficulty in raising finance.
“In fact, the demand has grown thanks to the overall
deficiency of modern piling equipment in our country, but
clients are not coming forward to buy as banks and NBFCs are
still not lending the way they used to,” he explains.
“Now, because of liquidity concerns, many large infrastructure
companies have kept their plans of buying equipment on hold.
Even so, we expect sales of piling equipment to grow after
September from the current level.”
Rentals on the rise
Interestingly, Jajal shares that major sales in the past few
months have come from the rental sector.
Commenting on this, Sehmbey says, “This is perhaps not
surprising, given that a recent study from the experts in
the construction equipment industry shows that the equipment
rental business is currently pegged at around 7-8 per cent
of the total construction equipment industry revenues, estimated
at around $ 3.5 billion (Rs 14,500 crore). And this is expected
to grow to more than $ 7-7.5 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) by
2010. As the overall demand for equipment on rent grows to
around 18 to 20 per cent, the demand for piling rigs on rent
in India will also increase. In the future, we will also consider
entering the rental segment.”
Chakrabarty also observes that the piling rental segment,
which was quite dormant in the past one year, has recently
gained momentum, thanks to the fact that many large companies
trying to defer their invest-ments are resorting to renting
machines for short-term jobs.
The value of a foundation
Apart from the rental sector, the demand for piling equipment
would receive a larger boost from greater awareness of the
fact that the foundation is the most important aspect of any
structure, whether it is bridges, flyovers or a highrise and,
further, that the use of the right piling equipment can help
achieve valuable cost savings.
“A strong foundation ensures structural stability of
the highrise and plays a vital role in enhancing its strength
to withstand natural calamities like earthquakes and floods,”
says Newatia. “At present, as vendors of specialised
equipment we witness a gross lack of awareness and know-how,
which is baffling to say the least. Of course, the fact that
most expositions held in India do not have a ‘piling
and foundation’ equipment category and trade journals
and seminars do not do justice to this product category does
not help.” Explaining this angle in greater detail,
Newatia points out that driven pile technology is still a
nascent concept in India whereas bored piles are more popular.
However, driven piles are far quicker and cheaper compared
to bored piles. But driven piles require either a vibratory
hammer or an impact hammer depending on soil conditions. There
are many benefits of vibro technology, the foremost being
that using vibratory hammers to drive piles in soft soil strata
can optimise productivity, resulting in huge savings for the
construction company. Also, vibratory hammers can drive in
a tube as well as extract the same once the pile is cast.
“We are doing all we can to share this know-how with
our clients,” he adds.
End-to-end solutionsFor their part, piling equipment vendors
are doing all they can to offer end-to-end solutions to customers.
In fact, Newatia shares that it is now standard practice to
collect soil investigation data from customers to run it on
a special drive analysis progra-mmer provided by the company’s
principals and recommend suitable equipment on the basis of
the findings.
Mait India also works closely with its clients to recommend
the right equipment for a job. In many cases, it suggests
alternate methods or equipment to execute a particular job.
For instance, Jajal shares that three years ago, they supplied
three rigs equipped with hydraulic hammers to Essar Construction
for driven cast-in-situ piles. Just prior to this purchase,
Essar Construction had been contemplating procuring more expensive
equipment for the job in question. But the three rigs proved
to be far more successful in helping the client execute the
job efficiently, at a lower cost, and in a shorter time period.
Consequently, the client purchased five more such rigs. Another
customer benefited from being supplied rig-mounted hydraulic
diaphragm wall grabs for the first time in India to implement
a metro project, and returned to purchase multiple units.
The client comes first
End-to-end services go a long way in helping clients understand
the need for the specialised equipment that is now on offer
as well as derive maximum benefit from it. “Piling equipment
designed for a specific purpose would deliver better productivity
at an optimum cost,” says Jajal. “Certain types
of piling equipment that are modified versions of other construction
equipment like excavators are also available in the market.
While the initial cost for such equipment is slightly less,
such models turn out to be expensive owing to higher operating
and mainte-nance costs in the long run.”
Mait’s HR series piling rigs, for example, are designed
specifically for piling. Therefore, they have an array of
features enabling specialised tasks like automatic levelling,
single-layered winches, optimum orientation of components
for increased stability, flexibility for multipurpose use
and operator comfort, which not only add value to the equipment
but also boost productivity.
Piling clients grow wise
Fortunately, as cost-consciousness beco-mes a priority, clients
are learning to carefully consider the size and features of
rigs. According to Sehmbey, as clients experience the enhanced
productivity and cost and time savings ensuing from the use
of hydraulic rigs, the demand for this kind of piling equipment
will continue to increase rapidly.And Chakrabarty observes
that many factors contribute to the optimum production of
a piling rig, such as size of the machine, right tools, a
good operator and the availability of the spare parts and
service close to the project site to minimise breakdown time.
As clients grow more aware of methods to enhance productivity,
piling equipment vendors representing international companies
like Soilmec Foundation Equipments are expanding their after-sales
service team and technicians as well as the stock of spare
parts they carry. “We have no less than 1 million Euro
worth of spare parts stocked in India,” says Chakrabarty.
Presumably as the real-estate industry moves out of its recessionary
phase, piling vendors will enhance stocks and expand their
sales teams still further. We’ll wait and watch!
The Time to Rent
Nitin Jajal, Country Manager, Mait India, shares his take
on two scenarios when it makes sense to rent, and not buy
piling equipment:
• When the job is comparatively small, say a maximum
of 3,000 to 4,000 RM, the investment entailed in purchasing
piling equipment is not justified.
• When the job is huge, say where more than 300,000
to 400,000 RM of piling has to be done in a stipulated time
frame, most clients buy some units and supplement these rigs
with a few units taken on rent. This saves the huge investment
mandated in the purchase of all new equipment and circumvents
the question of utilising the expanded capacity after the
completion of the particular job.
Deploying Equipment for Driven Piles
Sunil Newatia, Managing Director, Suretech Infrastructure
Pvt Ltd, points out the typical applications of different
kinds of equipment for driven piles:
• Vibratory hammers: These come in normal frequency,
high frequency and resonance-free models. Resonance-free models
are essential for projects in cities where piling needs to
be done close to buildings. Vibratory hammers can drive and
extract casings of up to 2,400 mm dia.
• Hydraulic impact hammers (onshore/offshore): There
are variants of impact hammers. Some double-acting impact
hammers are ideally suited for driving piles for jetties,
coffer dams and other offshore and marine projects. These
hammers can drive piles of up to 5,000 mm dia. Other models
of hydraulic impact hammers are well suited to drive tubes,
sheets and precast concrete piles for onshore projects.
• Integrated piling rigs: These are ideal for driven
cast-in-situ piles. In one integrated operation, this equipment
can drive up to 25-30 piles in a single day, as against two
to three piles driven using conventional technology.
• Pile breakers: These can speedily crush and demolish
old and worn out concrete piles without damaging the reinforcement
bars. Piles from 400 mm dia to 1,800 mm dia can be easily
crushed. The speedy demolition of old piles facilitates speedier
new construction.
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