Capital Equipment News June-July 2020

MATERIALS HANDLING

Manitou’s MHT-X 10130 heavy duty telehandler with a cable reel.

Large Bobcat telehandler with a pallet fork.

“The most defined attachment would certainly be our man platform, which allows the operator to work at height while controlling the machine, without an operator in the cab. We also fit a reasonable amount of pallet forks, bale forks and concrete skips.” Market outlook Ryder expects a negative outlook for the mining and construction market segments over the first six months to a year post- Covid-19, following the impact on the mining industry of operational downtime and volatility in terms of return on equity (RoE) and commodity prices. “In general, however, the outlook after this period looks positive for both mining and construction as safety regulations on mines and quarries force them to move to more rigid, fixed-framed attachments or equipment for the operating and handling of high-risk applications while construction will recover to the point of being able to purchase capital equipment such as telehandlers again. “We already have the attachments available to complement mines in their move towards mechanisation, allowing mines and quarries to handle equipment and components in the safest manner possible. The rapid movement towards mechanisation in agriculture means that high quality telehandlers with specialised agricultural attachments will be used more frequently.” To Swart, “the market for the telehandler will always be there”. He says there will always be a need on construction and other sites to lift or place material on higher surfaces. b

“The market for the telehandler will always be there. There will always be a need on construction and other sites to lift or place material on higher surfaces.”

Christo Swart, Bobcat sales consultant

“A single telehandler can perform many different tasks simply by changing the attachment to the one required for the job.”

Steve Ryder, MD of Manitou SA

TALKING POINTS

Manitou’s smaller telehandler attachments include forks, various construction and general-purpose buckets, man cages, skips and jibs. For the agricultural sector, the company offers a wide range of attachments to perform many applications on the farm. These include agricultural grabs and silage buckets, bale clamps and sweepers. To Swart, the Bobcat T40180 has the “best placing capacity in the market”. He says the reason is that the machine’s centre of gravity is more centralised and can therefore handle heavier loads on further reaches. “Apart from this feature, the T40180 is completely covered underneath, which allows the machine to operate on the most rugged of construction sites. The T40180 also offers the customer a ‘man platform’ function which is standard on our top model. This feature allows the operator to operate the machine from the man-cage safely, at a height of 18 m.” He says Bobcat offers various specialised attachments to improve the machine’s performance in various applications.

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS JUNE - JULY 2020 28