Capital Equipment News April 2017

USED EQUIPMENT

Suppliers report that demand for used heavy equipment in Africa has grown exponentially in recent years.

SIDESTEPPING USED EQUIPMENT PITFALLS

That Africa is a big used equipment marketplace is irrefutable, but what is worrying is that it doesn’t have the greatest of reputations, and is often referred to as the ‘graveyard of used equipment’. Despite the economic advantages of buying used, some fear the money-saving option’s risks may far outweigh the rewards. But, with a little extra effort on a buyer’s part, the most common used- equipment buying pitfalls can be avoided, writes Munesu Shoko .

E quipment can be one of the largest investments mining and construction companies make on their operations. With today’s tighter budgets, mostly companies with little or no capital outlay resort to used gear for their heavy equipment needs. On the back of challenging economic conditions in many African countries at this stage, many resort to used equipment as the immediate cost effective option. In South Africa, for example, the growing population of smaller construction contractors also translates into a big uptake of used equipment for a simple reason that these upcoming contractors lack the financial muscle to invest in new gear to service their few and far between contracts.

While buying used equipment has its fair share of advantages, Africa’s used heavy machinery hasn’t always had a great reputation at large. Franco Invernizzi, senior director for Africa and Middle East at CASE Construction Equipment, says Africa is one of the markets with the biggest number of used machines globally. “When I say used I don’t mean five to seven-year old machines. In Africa you can get a 20-year old excavator or even a 25-year old grader still working on site,” says Invernizzi. This view is shared by Colin McOwen, owner and director of CTC Plant Company, a leading South African earthmoving plant supplier which specialises in used gear, who says the hours of machines are a lot

higher than they used to be, which means that companies are extending the life of the machines. Paul Williamson, sales director Africa at Iron Planet, a leading global online auctioneer of used equipment, is also of the view that, while the outlook of the African used equipment market is looking up, the continent’s used heavy machinery hasn’t always had a good reputation, widely renowned as being a “graveyard of used equipment”. He says that African countries are often the last stop of machines beyond their cost effective lifecycles. “They would fail to be sold on because they were often in a poorly maintained condition,” says Williamson.

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