Construction World May 2018

EQUIPMENT

Record year despite tough market conditions

FAW SA enjoyed a record year of sales in 2017, with 1 200 units (including exports) finding new owners during the year. This is the highest ever sales achievement for FAW SA in what is a tough and highly competitive commercial vehicle market.

According to Jianyu Hao, CEO of FAW SA, the local market in 2017 has been the most competitive, since FAW started operation in South Africa over 23 years ago, but states that FAW’s wide range of heavy and extra-heavy offering are well tailored to local and Southern African customer needs which contributes to their continued growth. Through customer interaction and endorsements, FAW has ensured that they offer the appropriate model line-up, to cater for the farming, mining, construction, distri- bution and long-haul sectors. With the introduction of their modern 420 hp FAW 33.420FT 6X4 truck tractor in the third quarter of 2017, and the showing of their future products – the long haul JH6 truck tractor, 33-Seater bus, and FAW 8.140 full automatic – at the recent AutoMech- anika/Futuroad commercial vehicle trade show – FAW is geared for a busy 2018. Among many notable achievements in 2017, the Coega-based factory witnessed

the 3 000 th locally built truck roll off the production line. The assembly plant, which was inaugurated in 2014, has maintained such high quality standards that the global corporation has recognised and awarded FAW South Africa with the 'Global Distributer of the Year' award in 2017. Looking ahead to 2018, the Commercial Vehicle sector faces many challenges and Hao agrees with the sentiments and predic- tions of Naamsa (National Association of Automobile Manufactures of South Africa), that the market could go up to 27 000 units subject to certain provisos. Hao also agrees that provided South Africa manages to avoid a further credit downgrade, and provided the economic growth rate in 2018 picks up to about 1,2% from the expected 0,7% in 2017 – sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles could improve by between 2,5% to 3% in volume terms in 2018. “FAW SA however is staying committed to building on the reputation of 'Built in South Africa for Africa' through the promise of product back-up, highest vehicle uptime and lowest total cost of ownership with a duty-bound commitment for parts supply, service support and technical assistance whenever and wherever needed,” concludes Hao. 

National Parts Manager, Deric Knox.

‘Grey market’ goods not only pose a potential danger to customers, but also present a serious business chal- lenge. Due to the economic downturn rendering the market highly price-sen- sitive at present, National Parts Man- ager Deric Knox comments that the best strategy is to educate end users about the disadvantages, and hidden costs, posed by fake parts. “In the majority of all cases, Bobcat Equipment South Africa is able to negotiate a matching, or even better, price for OEM parts for our clients. This ensures that not only are we able to maintain our market share, but we prevent customers jeopardising the productivity of their operations and the safety of their workers,” Knox stresses. “Customers need to understand the overarching value of genuine versus imitation parts.” For example, Bobcat has designed specific filters for its machines. Non-genuine filters cannot handle the same throughput, or last as long, which poses a significant risk to equipment. “While cheaper-priced parts may be tempting, it is important for custom- ers to assess the long-term perfor- mance impact these will have on their equipment,” Knox concludes.  Using imitation or fake parts in OEM equipment poses a major risk to the health and safety of machine operators, in addition to being hugely detrimental to the overall performance of the equip- ment, warns Bobcat Equipment South Africa, part of the Goscor Group of companies. Dangers of using fake parts

Jianyu Hao, CEO of FAW SA.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD MAY 2018