As per all indications, the Pandemic is here to stay for a couple of years. What are the operational changes you are adopting to stay ahead in your business?
With the 3rd wave progressing here in India and worldwide we have understood that we have to learn, adapt and live along with the Covid situation and we have been evolving our systems to cope up with effects of the Pandemic. Many of clients have migrated to construction solutions that are technology driven and precast technology by Elematic has been at the centre stage of all such developments.
Use of technology is all forms of reach out to client and communications has taken the centre stage and BIM solutions has been one of the solutions that client has found to be of big advantage in this volatile situation.
We have made sure that all safety precautions such as vaccination doses and adequate insurance cover as well as following all Covid protocols in our operational side to ensure that we have minimal disruption.
How is the market for precast concrete shaping up in India? What is your Outlook for the precast concrete industry in 2022?
Even though there is high volatility in business, clients have evolved and many have adopted technology as an extension to their business. In search of arriving at correct response to the opportunities that need to be addressed in such a situation, precast technology arms our clients to quickly respond with a shortened project time line and hence we see improved prospects for business in 2022 and beyond.
There exists strong competition from other building materials such as PEB, glass curtain wall, steel buildings, etc. Compared to these building materials, what are the advantages of precast concrete?
Precast technology is more concerned with creating core and shell structure with RCC and that may be the cheapest raw material in years to come. Precast buildings can also be considered as composite buildings and works well with PEB, glass curtain wall, steel buildings, hence rather than see them as competition we consider this different material integrated in a seamless canvass as in composite buildings.
What are your precast concrete offerings?
Elematic is in the core business of enabling our clients to create buildings, this could be from infra, commercial, residential or industrial and warehousing space. Elematic is full-fledged engineering services company from Finland and provides support as in structural design and project execution along with establishing precast off-site plants.
Please take us through the latest technology trends and R&D in precast concrete and your manufacturing facilities?
Elematic has 3 levels of Technology adoption along with BIM design for making building Structural design in 3D virtual platform. The first level is SEMI: Start up plants for production up to 1.5 million sq ft/ year with minimal automation – suitable for site-based plants and project specific off-site installation; Next comes PRO: medium level automation for projects up to 3.5 millionsq. ft/ year suitable for site-based plants and factory installation and the third is the EDGE: high level automation for projects up to 10 million sq ft/ year and above, suitable for site-based plants and factory installation.
In this year, which sector will contribute the maximum revenue to the precast concrete sector? How are you going to leverage on the opportunity?
Elematic is focused on the building segment. Commercial IT buildings as well as affordable housing are the areas that seem to be promising this year as well. Our good work and projects case studies have been quite influential in encouraging our customers to move in the direction of technology and choose Elematic as their technology partner and we will continue to strive on that direction.
How are you overcoming skilled manpower shortages?
We see precast technology and BIM solutions that we propose and propagate as answers to the shortage of skilled manpower. Our technology eliminates many a steps of traditional construction that are unnecessary and hence bringsefficiency and speed.
Can you please share with us a few completed and upcoming projects?
Yes. A few of our ongoing projects are Aurobindo Realty and Infrastructure Hyderabad: in commercial IT buildings; PSP Ltd in residential and Infra Projects; My Home Construction Hyderabad in commercial IT buildings and B.E Billimoria Pune in residential for Police housing corporation.
There are challenges facing the precast concrete sector such as lack of standardisation, certification and testing facilities. How are you overcoming these challenges? What are the other challenges facing the precast concrete sector?
Indian standard codes (IS) are now available to a large extent and we always integrate Euro codes or the ASTM standards where required to arrive at the final structure. Certification and testing is also standardised for precast concrete as RCC cube testing is available in the country. We do not face many challenges in these areas.
What is your growth plan for your organisation for the next three years? Is there a plan to set up a new manufacturing unit or expansion plan in offing?
Our existing facility has enough space for expansion considering the increased business and we also consider the next 3 years as very critical and opportunistic for Precast technology adoption and growth in India market. Hence we have the required resource additions planned to address these opportunities
Shridhar Rao, Sales Head India, Elematic India
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