Capital Equipment News January 2017

Terex Trucks reports a resurgence of its brand under Babcock’s distribution in southern Africa.

ARTICULATING MORE HAULING GAINS

Southern Africa remains one of the key articulated hauler markets in the world. Its incredible versatility means that the articulated dump truck has become a popular piece of equipment in a range of applications including quarrying, general earthmoving and open pit mining. Amid stiff competition with manufacturers jostling for a share of the market, key innovations on ADT offerings abound, translating into better reliability and productivity for fleet owners, writes Munesu Shoko .

T he local articulated dump truck (ADT) market is very competitive with several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their local dealers vying for a sizeable chunk of the seemingly lucrative market. Names that come to mind as far as this market is concerned include Bell Equipment, Caterpillar, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE), Komatsu, Terex Trucks, Doosan, Astra and Dezzi. As much as the ADT remains a popular piece of equipment on local

quarry, construction and mining sites, the market hasn’t been spared from the tide of challenging economic conditions currently sweeping across many of the recipient sectors, especially on the back of downward commodity prices. To give an idea, the ADT market accounted for about

950 unit sales in 2013, but official figures reflect that sales tumbled in the following years with 2014 recording 620 units, while 2015 further shrunk to 453 units. 2016 continued on this downward trend with 391 unit sales recorded by October. “It is estimated that 70% of ADT usage in sub Saharan-Africa is in the mining industry. It is the nature of the environment that where mining needs to take place ADTs are an extremely good solution. As a result the ADT market in this region is heavily dependent on commodity prices,” says Tristan du Pisanie, product marketing manager at Bell Equipment. “2014 and 2015 were the challenging years as the slowdown in consumption of commodities brought an end to the commodity super-cycle. There were very

“It is estimated that 70% of ADT usage in sub-Saharan Africa is in the mining industry. It is the nature of the environment that where mining needs to take place ADTs are an extremely good solution. As a result the ADT market in this region is heavily dependent on commodity prices.”

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JANUARY 2017 10