“Hydraulic business sees no threat from e-mobility”

February 14, 2018 2:50 pm

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, a part of Wipro Enterprises (P) Ltd, is one of the global majors in hydraulic solutions. Though electric mobility is creating buzz across the industry, the company sees absolutely no threat for its Hydraulics business. Excerpts from an interview with Vasudevan R, Head – Global Sales, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering.

Could you brief us about your business activities?

Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN) specialises in design and manufacture of custom built hydraulic actuators and precision engineered components for a variety of applications such as aerospace, construction and earthmoving, material and cargo handling, forestry, farm and agriculture, mining, truck tipping, industrial and defence. We also provide concept-to-component additive manufacturing services through Wipro 3D.

What is your market position in this domain?

Wipro’s infrastructure business is very significant as far as Indian market is concerned. We are amongst the top 3 global Hydraulic Cylinder manufacturers and in India we are number one. We are the market leaders in the mobile equipment segment having collaboration with many OEMs having their equipment manufacturing in India and abroad. More the infrastructure is going to develop, more mobile equipment will be used for construction and material handling. Therefore, we will continue to play a very critical role in terms of supplying cylinders to OEMs who are in this business.

Could you name a few of those OEMs? 

In the construction and mining equipment segment, we are collaborating with JCB, Caterpillar, Tata Hitachi, Volvo, Sany, CNH etc. We also supply cylinders to major heavy commercial vehicle players like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Volvo Eicher for their tripping trucks. So, in India, every OEM practically buys from us some part or the other of their cylinder requirements.

What is your USP in terms of OEM partnerships?

Being closer to the customer is our major USP. For example, in case of a particular OEM, we supply cylinders in India, Brazil, Europe as well as in the US through our factories in India, Brazil, US and Europe. Secondly, our ability to provide very reliable and quality products makes us a preferred partner for OEMs. Thirdly, we also work closely with their design teams and provide good and effective design solutions which helps them improve their product performance.

How do you see the future of hydraulics business in the backdrop of emerging electric mobility?

As far as heavy equipment are concerned, we don’t think that electric mobility is going to impact them much. Even if electric mobility comes in, the function of hydraulics and cylinders is not going to get eliminated – they will continue at least in terms of delivering force for the equipment and speed control as they depend a lot on the accuracy of hydraulic systems. There might be EV applications in other areas, but hydraulic systems still stand with a good performance level.

What are your objectives for 2018?

The CE industry is expected to grow by 10 per cent. We have partnership with every major OEM and as the market grows we will also grow. So, being more optimistic we are targeting more than the market growth.

We are amongst the top 3 global Hydraulic Cylinder manufacturers and in India we are number one.
Vasudevan R,
Head – Global Sales, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering