Capital Equipment News January 2017

ARTICULATED DUMP TRUCKS

Astra has more than 30 ADT units currently operating in the local market.

few new mining projects and ADT operators were running machines for longer as they did not want to commit to large capital outlays at that time. 2016 saw some optimism with some commodity prices recovering and customers starting to engage in fleet replacements,” adds Du Pisanie. According to Du Pisanie, the market size varies significantly, which is one of the challenges for ADT manufacturers. “South Africa varies from 400 to 1 000 trucks a year. Africa as a whole goes from 700 to 1 500 per year. The global total is generally between 5 500 and 10 000.” Roelof Wallace, Astra sales manager at CNH Industrial, agrees that South Africa is a very well-known ADT market for all manufacturers in this space, especially with its high commodity wealth. “Due to the current economic status of South Africa and other African regions at large, investments and sales numbers have slowed,” says Wallace. He notes that fleet owners are also starting to look at on-highway options, which are somehow cheaper than their ADT counterparts. To date, Astra has more than 30 ADT units operating in the local market. “But, with a focus on further dealer expansions, we trust and believe we can grow this number significantly on an annual basis,” says Wallace. Competitive market Add to the slowing market, competition

Market trend – unit sales by month

is rife in this market as OEMs continue jockeying for market share, with a substantial move, on a global scale, being the acquisition of Terex Trucks business by Volvo CE in 2014, giving the Swedish OEM a strong position with two different product lines that cater for two different market tiers. Locally, that has also given Babcock, the southern African dealer for Volvo CE, an edge with two reputable ADT brands catering for two market segments. “The southern African ADT market, and in particular the South African marketplace, remains highly competitive. However, from a

Terex Trucks point of view, we are definitely seeing a resurgence of our brand under Babcock’s distribution in southern Africa,” says Erik Lundberg, business manager – sub-Saharan Africa at Terex Trucks. “Simultaneously, we are beginning to see, what will hopefully be a long and sustained recovery in the South African mining / earthmoving industry, which is contributing to higher sales volumes and market share for Terex Trucks in southern Africa.” Doosan also recently introduced its ADT range to the local market through DISA Equipment, trading as Doosan South

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JANUARY 2017 11