— S. Venkateswar Reddy, Chief Executive Officer, Wahyt Merchantile Pvt. Ltd

India is the fastest growing market in the pre-engineered construction segment at 9.5 per cent, ahead of China at 8.5 per cent. The Industry size of preengineered buildings in India is $0.38 billion. Currently, 33 per cent of the Indian construction industry is based on PEB while the remaining 67 per cent is conventional construction. Overall, the domestic PEB industry is expected to grow at around 35 per cent annually. Jibran Buchh met S. Venkateswar Reddy for an insight into this industry.

High input costs and rail freight hike have added to the increasing cost of steel. How does steel price volatility impact the Indian PEB market?
Steel prices do impact the PEB market, but this particular problem has not shaken the foundations of the sector. As such, the two big reasons would be that the technology and technicality, which goes into this type of infrastructure, is very simple. Second, it is less time consuming compared to conventional construction. So, instead of years of waiting for the completion of a project people now opt for pre-engineered buildings more because the projects are completed in one-third or one-fourth of the time vis-à-vis conventional construction.

The demand for PEB market is pegged at 425,000 tpa with growth of 15 per cent per annum. How do you see the industry evolve in next 10 years?
We acquired the wait-and-watch approach previously and realised that over a period of years the demand has increased. Most of the infrastructure projects which are taking place have incorporated PEB. All the commercial buildings would slowly convert or will be built on PEB format.

How is the pre-engineered approach beneficial while constructing modern operation theatres in hospitals?
Pre-engineered is beneficial for all segments of the industry. It's just that in healthcare the planning is more indepth i.e. preplanning is very important and a lot of details and precision is required because making changes may be difficult and could affect the design itself. Apart from these factors pre-engineered buildings are beneficial for all segments, irrespective of commercial, residential or healthcare.

Steel is 66 per cent recyclable and offers environmental and financial benefits in addition to strength and durability. Why does the residential sector continue to witness lower PEB demand compared to manufacturing and industrial segments?
The new residential projects are being made of pre-engineered building systems. As I said earlier, the technology comes from Japan and France which is way better than conventional construction. The problem is that people still dwell on the idea that PEB is good for industries and factories, but that idea is vanishing slowly. Spreading awareness may boost the use of PEB.

What is Wahyt Merchantile's key point of focus?
We are trying our best to increase the use of recyclable and eco-friendly materials in India. Cost-wise we might be spending around 15 to 20 per cent more, but it is very effective. We also want to spread our presence across the country.

Tell us about some of your company’s recent projects.
Wahyt Merchantile is currently into execution of residential space, both individual home and super luxury apartment.

Also, we are working with Phoenix for supply of wall material for one of their projects.

The details of the projects we are executing are:

Individual home area has a 2,600 sq. ft area and the structure is going to be preengineered/ prefabricated technology with a capex of 1,400 per sq. ft. The total cost per unit is 36.4 lakh.

The area of super luxury apartment is approximately 300,000 sq. ft (100,000 sq. ft cellar and parking, and 200,000 sq. ft flats floor area). In cellar and parking, we are using traditional construction procedure and for the super structure we are adapting the pre-engineered/prefabricated technology in which the capex is 15,000 per sq. ft. The total cost is 30 crore.