Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. will nearly double its excavator production in Pune, India by the end of next year, the company said Sunday.

The Korean construction equipment maker currently runs an excavator manufacturing plant with annual production capacity of 6,000 units in Pune, west of India. Its main products are 8-to-24-ton excavators. It plans to gradually ramp up the production capacity of the Pune line to produce 10,000 excavators annually by the end of next year to meet the burgeoning demand in India.

The company did not disclose how much it will be investing in the ramp-up.

India has emerged as the world’s biggest market after China for global construction equipment makers with the country making heavy infrastructural development investments across the country. Market experts predict the excavator demand in India to grow 13.7 percent every year to reach 38,000 units by 2022.

Hyundai Construction Equipment sold nearly 2,300 excavators during the first five months this year, up about 35 percent from the same period last year, and claimed the second largest or 18.1 percent share of the Indian excavator market. It has been India’s No.2 excavator company since 2016. It opened its Pune plant in November 2008.

The company is aggressively expanding its overseas plants. In January, it tripled the annual production capacity of its Jiangsu factory in China to 12,000 units. The company will be ramping up its India factory this time with an aim to earn 1 trillion won ($932 million) in revenue in India by 2023, said a Hyundai Construction Equipment official.

Shares of Hyundai Construction Equipment ended Monday 3.08 percent higher at 167,500 won.

By Woo Je-yoon and Cho Jeehyun

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