— 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.