Capital Equipment News March 2017

EARTHMOVING EQUIPMENT

David Gao, chief operating officer at Everstar Industries, the authorised dealer of the Shantui range of construction equipment in southern Africa.

Competitive edge One of the key competitive edges is that Shantui plays in the value sector of the market, and few other competitors in this market category have minimal focus on their dozer offerings. Gao says Shantui’s dozer offerings are reliable, basic pieces of equipment that come with no extra “bells and whistles” often found on premium makers’ products. The simplicity approach meets the needs of the upcoming construction contracting fraternity, as well as smaller and medium miners, and these market segments remain the lucrative and targeted customer base for Shantui. “Obviously our biggest benefit to this group of customers is our price advantage. Because we offer a simple product that comes with no expensive

the fact that South Africa, as the most advanced equipment market in southern Africa, is still dominated by premium dozer manufacturers. However, he tells Capital Equipment News that after Caterpillar and Komatsu, Shantui is the next biggest supplier of dozers by volume to the local market, especially in construction and small and medium mining applications. While South Africa remains the biggest dozer market in the region, Gao says Shantui has made strong inroads into the rest of southern Africa where several of its units are operating in countries such as Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Since its arrival in southern Africa back in 2010, the Chinese construction equipment maker has well over 1000 units operating in the field.

and sophisticated features, we are able to sell our dozers at a significantly lesser price compared with the premium OEMs,” adds Gao. A Shantui dozer is generally said to cost half the price of a comparable Caterpillar unit, while it is 30% cheaper than a comparable Komatsu offering. Another key competitive edge of the Shantui dozer range is the quality of the machine, which Gao says is based on critical components from renowned manufacturers such as Komatsu and Cummins. Apparently, in China, Shantui started off as a Komatsu dozer importer before it ventured into the production of its own gear. “In Africa, we still stick to less advanced, but robust mechanical offerings,” says Gao. He reasons that the simplicity of the product not only translates into ease

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