Moriaki Kadoya is quick to pinpoint which models will help HCME achieve its Number One in Europe sales goal.
“Hydraulic crawler excavators are our core product and key to our success,” he says. “It’s a product group which maintains the construction equipment industry in Europe, and we have a leading position on hydraulic crawler excavators in the continent.
“We really need to expand our sales of excavators into the quarrying and mining sectors in the UK and Germany. Currently it’s not so strong, but France is also an important market. Combining our strengths with new products, like our new wheeled loader programme, will allow us to expand into those customer groups in Europe.”
Kadoya has been a Hitachi Construction Machinery man for more than 34 years – having started a varied career with the construction equipment heavyweight in 1981 after graduating in Economics from Keio University in his native Japan.
His first major task on becoming HCME’s CEO and President in early 2012 was to manage the successful European market introduction of the then-new Zaxis-5 excavators and ZW-5 wheeled loaders – with the ZW370-5 and ZW550-S major models for quarry and mining-based customers.
Focusing on HCME’s aims to increase sales to quarrying and mining customers, as part of its wider aim of being the biggest OEM in sales terms in Europe, Kadoya says: “Our traditional core products for this sector are the ZX670, ZX870, EX1200 and EX1900 excavators. These are strong models in the quarrying and mining markets.
“We are now also promoting our new Wheeled Loader series for quarry customers, and last year we also introduced new EH-1100-5 rigid dump trucks to Europe. It was a very successful launch; we showed the models at
Of what attracts European quarrying and mining customers to Hitachi’s EH-1100-5 RDT, along with its larger Zaxis-5 excavators and ZW-5 wheeled loaders, Kadoya says: “They are robust products and I think what’s also key is our very good professional support team, including dealers who we are constantly training in our training centre at our assembly factory for mid-sized equipment based in The Netherlands. Customers have confidence in the support they will receive, not only after but before sales, as our sales engineers can analyse their job sites and recommend our most appropriate product solutions. Through training, our dealers can also develop their own pre-sales engineering capability within their businesses. We are seeing this. Customers also understand that they will enjoy a lower cost of operation and ownership and higher uptime with our models.”
Kadoya believes HCME also has another key advantage in its core product offer to quarry and mining customers. “We have leading technology when it comes to hydraulic crawler excavators. We were one of the first manufacturers to introduce 20-30tonne hydraulic crawler excavators for quarrying and mining customers. We developed these excavators 35 years ago. Our hydraulic crawler excavators are robust, very, very reliable and also durable. We are also making big efforts to improve their fuel efficiency, with advanced hydraulic fuel control technology. This is what customers want to earn money from their businesses.”
Turning his attention to HCME’s latest R&D work on quarrying and mining market equipment, Kadoya says: “We already developed the first electric driven hydraulic crawler excavators for mining more than 30 years ago, but we have continued to expand and develop these excavators, and we have AC drive technology for large rigid mining dump trucks, developed with Hitachi Ltd. They offer very good energy efficiency.
“We also have the controlling system that allows rigid dump trucks to run on electricity, and have with Rio Tinto in Australia been testing our autonomous haulage system for dump trucks.
“Hitachi Construction Machinery has a subsidiary in Canada called Wenco that specialises in software to help mining customers to manage their fleet and its health. The same software also surveys excavators and helps them identify where they have to dig. The subsidiary also has dispatch planning software for large mining sites, and it has now developed a similar program for smaller scale quarry businesses. We are looking for opportunities in Europe to help European quarry customers enhance their productivity with this software.”
Kadoya is tight-lipped about any potential new HCME equipment models on show at
He is keener to talk about HCME’s work on enhancing its customer aftermarket offer. “We have a programme using IT technology and data analysis, and a remanufacturing centre in Oosterhout [south Netherlands] since 2013, so our customers can save money by using remanufactured components on large excavators on rigid dump trucks. This brings down their cost of ownership. This remanufacturing centre also serves our customers in Africa and the CIS.
“More recently at the Oosterhout facility we are remanufacturing AC drive components for our rigid dump trucks, which is a very important development.”
Of the current state of the European construction equipment sector, Kadoya says: “The outlook is quite different from market to market. In some parts of Europe, the general economies are weak. In France, many customers are seeing a weakening of economic activities. Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece have been suffering from debt issues, but we see signs of recovery, except for Greece, in those countries. Germany is stable and strong and since 2012 the UK has shown the most robust recovery in its economy. There are lots of infrastructure works in South East England. That is creating a demand for aggregates, and we see more and more opportunities with quarry customers in the UK.”
Kadoya said that HCME is also achieving strong sales across Scandinavian countries, with sales in Norway, in particular, benefiting from a lot of government investment in infrastructure work, despite the oil price being lower since autumn 2014.
Despite the current weak demand in the French construction equipment market, HCME is, according to Kadoya, well placed for its return to growth. “We have constant contact with the large French quarry and cement companies. We expect to get some opportunities there, despite the state of the economy.”
Having earlier highlighted the importance of the quarrying and mining sectors to HCME sales growth, Kadoya says the company’s team in this area is “getting stronger”. “They are bringing dealers together; dealers are more positive and forceful in promoting our quarrying and mining offer. This togetherness between our HCME team and our European quarry and mining sector dealers is the biggest change since I took on my current role,” he emphasises.
Having been HCME’s Rotterdam-based Sales and Marketing General Manager from 1992 to 1998, Kadoya, who has a 20-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter, is well versed in the Netherlands.
Currently based at HCME headquarters on the outskirts of Amsterdam, one of Europe’s most artistic and culturally rich cities, has Hitachi’s main man in Europe had the chance to reacquaint himself with the city and other parts of the Netherlands?
“When I’m not working, I’m resting!” he jokes. “I was able to do some sightseeing in summer 2015 when my son came to visit me. I went to the Rijksmuseum and because my son is interested in contemporary art, we enjoyed visiting the Stedelijk Museum. We also went to the Concertgebouw [concert hall] to enjoy some very nice orchestral music.
“The Netherlands is a very nice place for ex-pats. There is a lot to see and I have also enjoyed seeing many new buildings in Rotterdam, where my son and daughter were born. There is a 400-year diplomatic history between the Netherlands and Japan, so the two countries and their people enjoy a very special connection.”
