The Hyderabad-based Puzzolana Fabricator Machinery LLP, is a renowned Indian company working in multi engineering disciplines like design, metallurgy, fabrication, machining, infrastructure and turnkey solutions. A market leader in aggregate crushers in India, the company has been manufacturing crushers, dredgers, screens, classifiers, feeders and mining equipment. In Nepal, it has partnered with MAW Engineering Pvt Ltd to distribute its products in the local market. Prakash Pai, managing director of Puzzolana Fabricator Machinery LLP was recently in Nepal to attend a business seminar. In an interview with New Business Age, he talked about the prospects in the Nepali market, products and expansion plans. Excerpts:

What brings you to Nepal?
I am here to attend a seminar-cum-presentation. The seminar is about promoting our company and discussing plans for expanding our business in Nepal.

How do you observe the growth of the construction equipment market in Nepal? How important is Nepal for your company?
Nepal is going through an infrastructural development drive as large projects in railways, roads and hydropower are coming up. So there are a lot of prospects for companies like us. However, any market is important for us whether we sell either one crusher or 100 machines. We believe that Nepal has a lot of potential to grow and create opportunities.

How do Puzzolana machines add efficiency to the projects that are under construction such as hydropower, railway, bridges, roads, etc?
In any construction, aggregate is one of the main raw materials. Without much aggregate and with the early assistances, we will not able to crush more than 100 to 500 tonnes of aggregate. Our crushers produce at least 1,200 to 1,400 tonnes of aggregates. These all construction projects may require 400,000 tons to 500,000 tonnes of aggregates. So we will contribute in big proportion in the Nepali construction industry where aggregates and dredges are required for the construction of the projects.

How many products are there in your portfolio and what are their unique selling propositions (USPs)?
Crushers are our main equipment and we entered the Nepali market two years ago with this segment. Besides, we also manufacture surface miners; self-loading concrete mixture is our latest product available here.

Talking about USPs of products, it is primarily the production capacity of our machines. Besides, we are manufacturing new types of equipment to cater to the different needs of our customers. For instance, we have sand machineries that produce both sand and aggregate.

How is Puzzolana Machinery Fabricator positioned globally? How is the market share of Puzzolana Machinery Fabricator in Nepal in the crusher segment?
In India, we have 65 percent of the market share in the crushing industry. In Nepal, our market share has been growing constantly year-over-year; last year, we sold 21 crushing plants. That means we have around a 55 to 60 percent market share in Nepal in the crusher segments.

What are Puzzolana Machinery Fabricator’s plans for Nepal in the upcoming days? Are you planning to launch any product in the near future?
We would like to be a part of Nepal's economic growth. For that we will work hard. If everything goes fine in the country, we have plans to start a manufacturing unit here to produce small equipment. Everything including demand and supply depends on the market requirement. Certainly, we will educate prospective customers here on the benefits of using construction equipment.