CASE India Pushes Pithampur Past 10,000 Units as CNH's Partner Search Leaves Operations Untouched

CASE Construction Equipment plans to lift production at its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh beyond 10,000 machines a year within the next couple of years, up from roughly 7,500–8,000 units last year, and says the parent company's search for a business partner for its global construction business will not slow that expansion.

CNH's Partner Search Won't Slow Pithampur Investments, Says CASE India

CNH Industrial, the machinery group that owns the CASE and New Holland brands, told investors during its first-quarter 2026 earnings call that it was moving away from a clean spin-off of the construction equipment business and instead exploring a partnership. The disclosure raised questions about whether investment decisions in growth markets such as India would be paused while the structure is settled.

Shalabh Chaturvedi, managing director of CASE Construction Equipment India and SAARC, dismissed that concern outright.

"A customer, at the end of the day, buys products and services. They don't buy corporate structure," Chaturvedi told Autocar Professional. "These things are ephemeral — they keep evolving over a period of time."

He pointed to precedent from his own tenure. The Indian operation ran as a joint venture with Larsen & Toubro as L&T-Case, until 2011, when CNH acquired the full stake. "Having lived through that period, I can tell you nothing happened on the ground. Nothing really changed in terms of the products or the services," he said.

"We are not holding back. In fact, even right now as we speak, more investments are flowing into the plant. We are bringing in more products here, increasing our production capacity. Things are going business as usual — in fact, with much more aggression, given the opportunity that India presents."

The growth plan rests on two legs. The first is organic volume in CASE's established segments: backhoe loaders and vibratory compactors, where the company says it has consistently gained market share even through last fiscal year's industry decline. The second is localizing product lines not currently built in India, including skid steer loaders and compact track loaders—small, agile machines widely used in confined urban sites—along with additional excavator ranges, taking Pithampur deeper into heavier equipment.

Skid Steer Loaders, Compact Track Loaders to Be Localised Next

Exports underpin the case for capacity. Nearly 50 percent of Pithampur's production is shipped overseas, and Chaturvedi said absolute export volumes are rising even as the share holds steady. Shipments to the United States paused briefly amid tariff uncertainty, duties on the relevant product lines have swung from zero to 25, 50 and back toward a possible 12 percent under the latest order, but the US remains a small slice of the plant's export mix, and total exports from Pithampur grew last year regardless. Industry-wide, Indian construction equipment exports rose 32 percent last fiscal.

Exports Make Up Half of Pithampur's Output Despite US Tariff Swings

The ambition is sized accordingly. Chaturvedi expects CASE's India construction revenue—about Rs 2,700–2,800 crore in FY25, within CNH India's roughly $1 billion (Rs 9,570 crore) business—to double by 2030 through the combination of existing lines and newly localized products.

CASE Targets 2x India Revenue by 2030

"Between now and 2030, I feel that our revenue pie should grow by 2x," he said. "The investment, the capacity, the new product lines — they are all coming to Pithampur, regardless of what may or may not happen as a corporate structure."

FY26 India figures are expected to be disclosed in early August, once the company exits its results blackout period.