ICEMA Annual Session: Exports Now a Fifth of CE Output

India’s machine plants are no longer building mainly for India. At the ICEMA annual session in New Delhi on 1 September, association president Deepak Shetty put a figure on a shift that has built quietly over five years: roughly one machine in five now leaves the country. Five years ago it was closer to one in forty. If you are pricing an excavator or a backhoe loader in India this year, that changes who you are queuing behind for a build slot.

What ICEMA told the session

Autocar Professional, which covered the session, reported Shetty framing the export number as a verdict on quality rather than on volume: growth of 31.5 per cent, he said, should give the industry confidence that machines built here are meeting what global customers expect. He pushed manufacturers to compete abroad on innovation rather than on price, and pointed to JCB India’s rail-based distribution, which the company says has cut its shipping costs by about two-thirds. That is a company-stated figure. ICEMA has not issued a press release from the session, so what follows is as reported from the floor.

On policy, Shetty said an incentive scheme for construction equipment manufacturing sits with the government and that clarity should come in the very near future. No outlay, no eligibility rules and no notification date have been announced, so treat it as a signal and not a plan you can budget against.

What does a fifth of output going abroad mean for buyers?

Start with the year just gone. Domestic demand was weak through FY26 and plenty of buyers waited for the discounting that usually follows a soft year. It never properly arrived. An export book absorbing a fifth of production is a large part of why: lines that would once have idled kept running for customers in other countries, and idle lines are what force price cuts.

The second effect is on specification. A machine built to satisfy a British or European operator is the same CEV Stage V machine sold in Kanpur or Kolar. Indian buyers paid for that emission step in the sticker price and complained about it, fairly. The return on it is showing up now as export access, better build consistency and telematics fitted as standard rather than as an option.

The third is freight, which buyers rarely interrogate. If a manufacturer moves finished machines by rail instead of road, that cost line falls. Ask your dealer whether inland freight is quoted separately on the invoice or absorbed into the machine price.

Our take: the export share is the most useful number to come out of the session, more so than the growth rate everyone quoted. It says Indian manufacturers now have somewhere else to send output when India slows. For a buyer that cuts both ways. Fewer distress discounts in a downturn, but a dealer and parts network with steadier volumes behind it, which matters more over a seven-year ownership life than a one-time discount on a soil compactor.

FAQ

How large are India’s construction equipment exports now?

ICEMA put export growth at 31.5 per cent in FY26. Its president told the annual session that exports now run at roughly a fifth of Indian production, against 2 to 3 per cent five years ago.

Does a strong export book make machines dearer in India?

Not directly. It reduces the pressure on manufacturers to discount when domestic demand falls, which is why a weak FY26 produced fewer bargains than buyers expected.

Why does CEV Stage V matter to exports?

Stage V brought Indian off-highway emission rules close to the standards enforced in Europe and other developed markets, so a machine built for India can be sold there without a separate build.

Related on DesiMachines: ICEMA FY26 data: CE sales fall 2%, exports jump 32%

Source: Autocar Professional