Capital Equipment News September 2016

AT THE PAVING EDGE As the construction contracting fraternity fights to remain in business in the face of very few and far between projects and lower margins, there is a growing expectation from road contractors that modern machinery should play a crucial role in speeding up processes on sites. Several new launches in the asphalt paver space, with advanced technological enhancements for better integration of paving workflows, are set to address road contractors’ productivity concerns. By Munesu Shoko.

equipment space. Competition is rife, with several OEMs vying for a share of the mar- ket. Some of the names that come to mind as far as asphalt pavers are concerned in- clude Wirtgen, with its Vögele range, Atlas Copco, with its Dynapac range, Bomag, Caterpillar, Volvo Construction Equipment (CE) and Ammann. A host of Chinese OEM’s have also since ventured into the paver market. These include XCMG, Sany Heavy Industries and Zoomlion, to mention a few. However, due to the specialised nature of this machinery, European players, with their premium offerings, have a considerable market share. Several recent launches from Vögele, Dynapac, Caterpillar and Volvo CE are testimony that this technology continues to evolve. Innovation paves in German road construction equipment specialist Vögele recently used Bauma 2016 to show its Super 1800-3i SprayJet, an innovative spray paver with a new operating concept. One key feature is that the operation of the spray module has been integrated into the ErgoPlus 3

I ncreased road traffic calls for contin- uous construction and improvement of roads in Africa, both in urban and rural areas, and will likely fuel the asphalt paver market. South Africa remains one of the advanced paver mar- kets on the continent, as the establishment of modern roads and heavy expenditure on road maintenance in the country continue to take centre stage. Bearing in mind that an asphalt paver is one of the idlest pieces of equipment on a

road construction site, only deployed to work a few hours per day, fleet replace- ment programmes are not as intensive as those for other road construction ma- chines. For that reason, the paver market in South Africa, at its best, only accounts for about 18 units per year. It is also important to note that this is a specialised piece of equipment, calling for expert backup support, a big strength for most specialised original equipment man- ufacturers (OEMs) in the road construction

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2016 24