Capital Equipment News July 2017

EDITOR'S COMMENT

MAKING THE OLD NEW AGAIN

L ast year the global mining sector was in dire straits, on the back of downward commodity prices. With mining being a money spinner for most African economies, investments into infrastructure development activities also dried out, meaning both construction and mining contractors felt the full brunt of the slowdown. With no sustainable pipeline of projects, investments into new equipment definitely slowed and the growing preference for used equipment became apparent. African fleet operators particularly are renowned for preferring this gear. In a recent conversation with a representative of a major international OEM, he noted that the challenge today is that Africa is a market with the biggest number of used machines. He reiterated that when talking of used gear, he wasn’t even refering to typical five to seven-year old machines that are the norm elsewhere in the world. In Africa, you can get a 20- year old excavator or even a 25-year old grader still working on site, and it would have changed hands more than five times with no form of ownership history at the disposal of a potential next buyer. As you will see in the Equipment Rebuilds feature in this edition of Capital Equipment News, it is encouraging to note that in order to optimise the lifecycles of their equipment, both mining and construction equipment owners are resorting to refurbished and rebuilt gear. Equipment users understand the importance of preserving their investments by extending their equipment’s life by having it refurbished or rebuilt. Both refurbishing and rebuilding improve the machine’s dependability while increasing productivity and lowering production and operating costs.

However, there are very thin, but clear borders between used (as is), refurbished and rebuilt equipment, meaning that they are not one and the same thing. Though the three terms insinuate previous ownership, often used equipment is just bought with no available previous maintenance records or knowledge of previous concerns, while rebuilt equipment, when done under OEM standards, complies with quality standards, often with the same warranty options as new gear. Though rebuilt equipment is often backed by standards, different vendors use different processes, parts, levels of exactitude and quality-acceptance levels to rebuild the equipment they sell. It is often the norm that when times are this tough, price is the prime determinant of what we buy, but when the equipment you are buying is business-critical, quality and authenticity should be your most important considerations. When buying rebuilt equipment, there is a level of certainty premised on the fact that a rebuilt piece of equipment often has a warranty and possible maintenance programme. Should it fail, it will be under the same level of protection as new equipment. Used equipment may have the price appeal compared with rebuilt, but I believe that when buying business- crucial equipment, it is noteworthy to look beyond the price tag. Nothing can be worse than buying a piece of equipment at a bargain, only to have it fail shortly after it is deployed at a crucial jobsite where any form of downtime is out of question, especially considering that project timelines of today are unforgiving. If you make a mistake on a small appliance, you will have few regrets and move on. That same mistake on a big piece of construction or mining equipment has far reaching implications that will haunt you for the long haul.

Munesu Shoko – Editor

capnews@crown.co.za

@CapEquipNews

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JULY 2017 2