Mining equipment demand recovers quickly
February 23 - March 1, 2010
FEBRUARY 19: A STARTLINGLY bullish view of the global mining machinery business from a US investment bank should have the ‘downstream’ service and supply companies in the sector salivating at the prospect of a stronger than expected recovery this year. For miners though it looks to be time to get back in the queue.
Eight is enough
January 19 - 25, 2010
THIS YEAR seems unlikely to be one of major consolidation in the global mining machinery business, despite opening with a bang with Bucyrus International $US1.3 billion purchase of Terex Corp’s mining equipment lines. That’s the view of several sector analysts, though price as always remains the key.
Picking up the pieces
March 9 - 15, 2010
IT MIGHT not be causing analysts to realign their spreadsheets at this stage, but ESCO Corporation’s plans to be the dominant player in Australia’s mining machine parts business, in its own right, will cause long-time product licensee Bradken to change a few of its foundry moulds. That’s if history repeats in this case.
Big Cat to boost Kerry's ratings
March 2 - 8, 2010
WE went digging for synergies in the WesTrac/Channel 7 merger this past week – asking for all manner of expert help – but found only strands of motive, hints of suspicion ... hang on, what’s that...
Back up the truck
February 23 - March 1, 2010
SO IT was earthmoving equipment for the Australian Government’s $A43 billion national broadband network that federal communications minister Stephen Conroy discussed with billionaire Kerry Stokes on the Vail ski slopes in Colorado last month, not television licence fees.
Australian firm cast in bigger role
February 2 - 8, 2010
AUSTRALIA’S success exporting mining IT and other technologies is well known. Less so the build-up in mining machinery attachment and parts production, which has been fired mainly by the domestic market. A company that has really broken this mould is Austin Engineering.
In brief ... Sandvik, Haulmax, Joy Global, Bucyrus
January 19 - 25, 2010
SANDVIK expects to start delivering low-profile underground coal mine development equipment to China’s Shenhua Energy Company’s Shendong operations in Shanxi province in May this year under a new contract to supply seven machines.
Bucyrus backs mining super cycle; Terex does not
December 21 - 27, 2009
US MINING machinery heavyweight Bucyrus International has agreed to buy Terex Corporation’s mining equipment business in a $US1.3 billion deal that leaves Germany’s Liebherr and Japan’s Hitachi as the two logical acquisition choices for Joy Global if it wants to follow its Milwaukee rival’s lead.
Cat zaps electric truck talk
November 16 - 22, 2009
CATERPILLAR has rejected suggestions its big electric-drive mine truck program has been unplugged.
In brief ... Austin Engineering, Komatsu, Liebherr, Terex Mining
November 16 - 22, 2009
THE BIG pay-off for Austin Engineering’s move into South America will be profits similar to the Australian group’s domestic earnings, according to Argonaut Securities, which noted this week integration of the Chilean operations bought from Conymet “is progressing well”.
Snub won't stop surface miners: Wirtgen
October 19 - 25, 2009
NEWS that Rio Tinto has rejected the use of surface mining technology at its existing operations in the Pilbara has not shaken German supplier, Wirtgen, which says it will continue to market its range of surface miners to iron ore and bauxite companies worldwide.
On the rebound
August 31 - September 6, 2009
LOST (somewhere) in the recent announcement by Australia’s Austin Engineering that it had acquired Chile’s biggest steel mine dump truck body supplier was the detail about not acquiring all of the Medel family-owned enterprise. What’s left includes Conymet Duratray, which now intends to more aggressively market its rubber trays in key world markets, including Chile.
Austin rides into Chile
August 10 - 16, 2009
AUSTRALIA’S Austin Engineering has confirmed the acquisition of Chile’s Antofagasta-based Conymet Ltda (HighGrade, June 22) from the Medel family, a deal that makes it the world’s largest non-OEM supplier of mine dump truck bodies and opens the door to significant mine fleet maintenance revenues.
CAT says big trucks are ready
July 27 - August 2, 2009
MINING machinery giant Caterpillar says field testing of its new mechanical and electric drive trucks has reached important milestones, but it hasn’t yet put a commercial launch date on its first big electric drive hauler.
Riding on the backs of giants
July 13 - 19, 2009
AUSTRALIAN companies are set to dominate global mine-truck dump body manufacturing activity outside of North America. But how tenuous is their market hold given the competition? HighGrade asked two industry insiders – one a dump-body sales veteran, the other a senior manager with an equipment supplier – for their views.
Rise of the machines
June 29 - July 5, 2009
AUSTRALIA’S mining technology and service sector has a big future, say many of its supporters, but equipment manufacturing remains by and large an area of missed opportunities. Dale Elphinstone, where are you now? One company channelling the great man is Ballarat-based Gekko Systems.
Austin sees loads of potential
June 22 - 28, 2009
AUSTIN Engineering has plans to expand its large mining truck dump body business into Africa and other key global markets, possibly through further acquisitions, after it wraps up a deal to acquire Chile’s “leading manufacturer and supplier of steel dump truck bodies”, understood to be Conymet Ltda.
Cat among the pigeons
April 27 - May 3, 2009
BUCYRUS International has – so far – shown the sort of counter-cyclical resistance to market upheaval that would make it an attractive addition to the mining equipment business of, say, Caterpillar or Komatsu.
Joy cuts to the chase with plant expansion
March 30 - April 5, 2009
US-BASED Joy Mining Machinery is playing its cards pretty close to its chest on its latest investment in China (where “no comment” is an official line of response to media inquiries). The world’s biggest coal mining equipment manufacturer recently had a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of its new factory project in Wuxi City, Jiangsu.
Long haul produces 50,000 trucks
March 30 - April 5, 2009
GLOBAL mining machinery giant Caterpillar recently passed another significant production milestone when its 50,000th rigid-frame off-highway dump truck – a 777F 100-tonne-payload unit – left the factory at Decatur in Illinois, USA. The company has become the dominant force in mine haulage worldwide over more than four decades.
Scratching the surface
March 23 - 29, 2009
‘THE new force in iron ore’, Fortescue Metals Group, will take delivery of the first of five Wirtgen 4200 surface miners mid-this year, which should help the group further reduce its operating costs, improve maintenance efficiency, and increase tonnages. But FMG is not the only company eyeing off the technology – Wirtgen is in discussions with various other big names, including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, about the possibilities of applying surface mining technology to their operations.
Pick up time for new miner
March 16 - 22, 2009
FORTESCUE Metals Group’s durable surface miner guru David Mendelawitz is in Windhagen, near Cologne, Germany, this week to speak at the unveiling by Wirtgen of its new 4200 SM machine – the continuous miner originally scheduled to be cutting rock at FMG’s Cloudbreak mine in the middle of last year.
Carbon dilemma for mine planners
February 23 - March 1, 2009
MINERS can’t often be accused of looking too far into the future, especially when there are some unpalatable options ahead. Craig Stevenson, naturally, believes they better start adjusting their thinking.
A tale of two halves
February 9 - 15, 2009
TEREX Corporation CEO Ron DeFeo has described 2008 as a year of contrasting halves as the world’s third biggest construction and mining equipment maker missed its $US10 billion annual sales target and all but abandoned its 2010 goal of $US12 billion in sales.
Manufacturing gloom
February 2 - 8, 2009
LAST month’s boom epitaph posted by the Construction & Mining Equipment Industry Group could have provided a more accurate rear-view mirror look at 2008 equipment sales in Australia, and the outlook for 2009. More than $A1.5 billion of missing mining equipment sales would have confirmed a better 2008 than 2007, for a start.
Cat sales to slump after six years of growth
January 26 - February 1, 2009
DETERIORATING global economic conditions are expected to carve $US10 billion from Caterpillar’s 2009 construction and mining equipment sales, the machinery heavyweight has conceded. Record 2008 sales of $US51.324 billion marked the high point of a cycle that saw Caterpillar’s business expand from $US20 billion in 2002 to last year’s mark.
Vale shows loader commitment to LeTourneau
January 19 - 25, 2009
NOT-for-sale LeTourneau Technologies has entered into a five-year “global strategic alliance” with Brazil’s Vale to supply the world’s second largest diversified metals and mining company with large front-end loaders.
Draglines resurfacing
November 17 - 23, 2008
BUCYRUS International has secured the first of what president and CEO Tim Sullivan hinted last month could become a clutch of new orders for draglines, with the company this year putting out a forecast that it expects to be manufacturing 3-5 of the $US150-200 million units a year.
Finning eyes electric truck market
November 10 - 16, 2008
CATERPILLAR’S major dealer Finning International sees a big market for the manufacturer’s new heavyweight electric-drive dump trucks in British Columbia’s coalfields.
Lame ducks
November 10 - 16, 2008
A MATERIALLY bigger installed base of mining plant and equipment around the world has some global suppliers better positioned than others to weather next year’s expected industry downturn – group such as Joy Global, Weir and Atlas Copco, according to UBS. But the investment bank says to forget about exposure to exploration and some service providers in the short term.
Bucyrus chief still a resources bull
October 20 - 26, 2008
IF ANY mine supplier is well placed to ride out a lull in mining investment activity it is Bucyrus International, but it is a fact not given much store by investors who have dumped the stock along with other heavy equipment manufacturers. Does the cycle end in another privatisation of the company? “It’s an intriguing question,” president Tim Sullivan says.
Joy sees synchronicity in products, market needs
October 13 - 19, 2008
IN A world where economic uncertainty is now overshadowing all else, some miners are still mindful of old chestnuts such as fuel price volatility, tyre supply shortages, thinning skilled operator ranks, and even carbon emissions trading (remember that one?). Enter Joy Global and its inpit crushing and conveying (IPCC) system.
Equipment makers still extended
September 29 - October 5, 2008
COMPANIES looking to start big projects, and currently wondering where the funds are going to come from, also still face joining a long queue for mining and other vital capital equipment, according to the world’s major manufacturers of mining equipment.
Tackling a thirst for fuel
June 16 - 22, 2008
VOLVO Construction Equipment and Komatsu are making revolutionary steps in the off-highway equipment market with the impending launch of their hybrid machines, a wheeled loader and a crawler excavator, respectively. Other companies look certain to follow with hybrid machines in the near future and Kobelco for one has been testing a number of prototype excavators for some time.
Komatsu joins heavies
May 26 - June 1, 2008
JAPANESE equipment manufacturer Komatsu has formally launched an ultra-class rear-dump truck, the 327-tonne-payload 960E-1 AC-electric drive unit, after three years of testing in North American coal and copper mines.
LeTourneau up for grabs
May 12 - 18, 2008
THE sometimes-coveted mining equipment line of Rowan Companies Inc unit LeTourneau Technologies finally looks like it could be sold. While mining equipment makers haven’t been queuing up to take on their oil-drilling cousins in a bidding duel for all of LeTourneau, there appears to be strong interest in a subsequent “monetisation” of the mining part of the business.
Never say never again
May 5 - 11, 2008
ARGUABLY the most hotly awaited machine making its debut at the upcoming Minexpo exhibition is Caterpillar’s diesel electric mining truck. The development of a diesel/AC electric drive haul truck represents a major change in direction for the world’s biggest mining equipment maker.
Mine truck market in high gear
April 28 - May 4, 2008
LAST year mining companies around the world invested more than $US3 billion in large mining trucks, continuing their love affair with the mechanical giants. The global population of the machines has exploded in the past five years. Will the rampant growth trend continue and, if so, how long will it last?
Cat defends mining agreements
April 21 - 27, 2008
STUNG by steep rises in material prices, which were reflected in generally higher costs in the first quarter of 2008, machinery giant Caterpillar has defended the use of global supply agreements with major mining companies which it says are adequately allowing it to pass on the increased cost of manufacturing equipment.
Terex raises 2008 sales target
April 21 - 27, 2008
TEREX Corporation has followed market leader Caterpillar in announcing stronger first quarter earnings and machinery sales, with non-US growth countering a weak domestic market except in Terex’s case for its aerial platform business.
Tunnel entry is murky
March 31 - April 6, 2008
MINING and construction machinery giant Caterpillar has described newly acquired Lovat Inc of Canada as a good strategic fit and an entry point into the “rapidly expanding tunnel boring machine business”, but declined to provide any data in support of the growth tag.
Golden circle
March 24 - 30, 2008
MAJOR gold producer Barrick Gold Corporation has transferred its long-term ‘experiment’ with Sandvik’s 60-tonne-payload underground mine truck to the Darlot mine, 125km north of Leonora in Western Australia.
Longwall Joy
March 17 - 23, 2008
XSTRATA Coal’s Beltana operation in the New South Wales Hunter Valley could test the longwall production benchmark set by China’s Shenhua Energy following delivery of a $A150 million state-of-the-art automated longwall system by US-based manufacturer Joy Mining Machinery.
Cat pause
November 9 - 15, 2006
HAVING sped clear of its competitors in the past few years, Caterpillar Inc will drop back a gear in 2007 in anticipation of some tighter turns and maybe the odd pothole. However, behind the scenes, massive investment in technology and new machinery looks like ensuring the company will come out in 2008 with an improved engine capable of even more power in the straights.
