Indian Economy News

M&M to launch a tractor platform jointly with Mitsubishi

  • IBEF
  • February 18, 2020

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd plans to introduce its new range of tractors, developed in collaboration with Mitsubishi of Japan, in order to further strengthen its position both in the domestic and overseas markets.

M&M and Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery (MAM) entered into a strategic agreement about five years ago and 33 per cent stake in the latter were acquired by the company where aim was to jointly develop products to address global opportunities in the rice value chain.

Mr Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “We are working on a programme for developing a new tractor platform called K2. It will have four tractor variants. These will be designed for both domestic and international markets. The work is primarily done in Japan in co-operation with Mitsubishi Agriculture Machinery. This is the most ambitious tractor development we have undertaken.”

Although, the company didn’t give much details about the new platform, it indicated that it is also working on intelligent tractors to enhance agricultural productivity and tackle the problem of shortage of skilled labour, among others.

This new K2 platform is expected to be launched in mid-2021 and models will be introduced for two years across horsepower ranges.

Though, Mahindra and Swaraj brands are responsible for company’s strong performance in its tractor segment, it has also come out with products with new features under the Novo, Yuvo and Jivo platforms to showcase its technological edge. Mr Goenka said that the tractor market is expected to witness a positive growth of about five per cent in the current quarter. However, the industry will end the fiscal with about seven per cent decline.

For April-December 2019 period, the tractor industry saw a decline of about 10 per cent in domestic sales at 5.66 lakh units. Exports declined by 17 per cent to 59,000 units compared with the year-ago period.

He added, “Though it is too early to predict growth for the next fiscal, we expect about five per cent growth, with plus or minus 2. Rabi sowing has been good and reservoir levels are also good. On this year’s monsoon, El Nino effect is going to be neutral. So, it is expected to be normal, which will augur well for the tractor industry”.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.

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