Sumitomo eyes booming Phl construction
A recognized global player, Sumitomo Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. considers itself a latecomer in the Philippine construction industry.
Sumitomo managing director Ichiro Shimada, however, believes that with proper market positioning, they will seize the opportunities presented by the robustly growing Philippine construction industry.
Shimada said they are latecomers in the Philippine market, and while they grow progressively “step by step,” they have many things to learn yet.
“We haven’t concentrated on the Philippine market. We have businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. but the Philippines is a very new market for us, so I still haven’t actually figured out what our strengths and weaknesses are, relative to our competitors, given that we haven’t been here for a long time,” he said.
Shimada said Sumitomo is focusing on two products – the excavator and the asphalt-paving machine. He feels confident Sumitomo has an advantage in these equipments on which their firm has concentrated its efforts and resources to develop them.
Sumitomo specially featured its most fuel efficient Hydraulic Excavators, SH130-6 and SH210-6 and asphalt-paving machines at the recent Philconstruct Manila Expo 2018 (Philconstruct 2018) at the World Trade Center Manila.
In an interview, Shimada said the Sumitomo excavator offers not just comfort and convenience, but also high efficiency in operating costs, including low fuel consumption. To operate it, “you don’t have to put so much money to maintain the machine. Everybody desires equipment quality and cost efficiency, particularly in construction work,” he said.
On the Philippine market, Shimada said: “Generally speaking, the Philippine market is a very viable and high-potential one, you have a huge population. There are many things to do; you need a lot of work for infrastructure improvement. Along with the growth of this industry, you need efficiency to build infrastructures.”
Shimada noted that with the Duterte administration’s Build Build Build program there is a rising need for construction machineries and supplies in the country.
According to Shimada, the future is bright for the infrastructure industry not only here in the Philippines, but globally. The use of artificial intelligence in buildings and infrastructure is on the rise, he said.
“Take a look at the advanced countries like Japan, Europe, America. In these countries, there is now what is called a machine-controlled system which is becoming more popular. It assists machine operators who may not even be highly skilled,” Shimada said.
Shimada said the system has become urgently necessary. “It has become difficult to find skilled operators for the construction industry,” citing Japan, “where we are facing lack of laborers. That will be an area where all players need to develop responsive systems to provide more efficient work process. We’re gearing for less human control systems,” he said.
The Sumitomo executive shared that in the US, they have just started marketing computer-operated excavators. “Once you set it – or if you have a threedimensional drawing into the machine – the machine can operate automatically. That’s going to be one of the features in the future.”
Shimada assured, however, that despite the many challenges they face in the Philippines, their coming to the country is timely.
He said Sumitomo targets to sell approximately 13,000 hydraulic extractors and 300 asphalt pavers in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America in a year.