JCB plans to increase exports of India-made construction gear
JCB) Excavators, one of the world's largest manufacturers of construction equipment like backhoe loaders and telescopic handlers, aims to increase exports from its India unit this year to 45% of its output, up from 10% five years ago, a top executive said.
India, one of the fastest-growing major economies, is JCB's largest market outside Europe. Here, the Bamford family-owned company is also looking to test its recently developed hydrogen combustion engine, its chairman, Lord Bamford, told reporters at the company's global headquarters in Rocester, UK.
JCB is also looking to make electrolysers which will produce hydrogen from water for testing its zero-emission backhoe loaders — a first in the construction equipment sector — Bamford said, adding that the electrolysers will be produced for captive consumption.
The company plans to commence production of the electrolysers in the next 18 months at its UK facility.
Subsequently, it will also be produced in India, Bamford said. «We are investing in India all the time — more there than other parts of the world.
We try to reproduce everything we do here, in your country and we are happy about that,» Bamford said. «If we make the hydrogen engines here commercially, we will be making them in India as well.» Given India's high dependence on imported fossil fuel, the urgency to find a solution should be more, he said.
Globally, several companies, including India's Reliance Industries and Adani Enterprises, have been working on green hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuel.
