JCB India MD & CEO Deepak Shetty tells Business Today that despite a dampened 2024, the company expects a surge of new NHAI, road, airport and infrastructure projects next year. Export headwinds from US tariffs reduced shipments from 10,000 machines to around 1,500–2,000, but strong demand from Europe, East Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia helped offset nearly 70% of the impact. Shetty said the construction equipment industry urgently needs a PLI scheme to build a domestic ecosystem for key components like valves and electronics, still largely imported from Japan, Korea and Europe. JCB has also secured its largest-ever defence order—around 750 telehandler machines—and is developing new railway technologies.

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