The 2018 edition of bauma China was an action-packed record breaker. Guy Woodford was among the visitors keen to see the latest aggregates processing equipment for Chinese customers.
The event was run under the theme, Smart technologies for an exceptional market, and covered an area of 330,000m², using the entire available exhibition space at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). The 9th International Trade Fair for Construction Machinery, Building Material Machines, Mining Machines and Construction Vehicles was held from 27-30 November 2018. According to the show organisers, the event highlighted the future of the Asian construction, quarrying and mining industries: smart, digital and more sustainable.
Keen to maintain its status as the biggest-selling tracked mobile crushing equipment manufacturer in China, Kleemann, a Wirtgen Group company, unveiled a trio of new models.
The up to 650tonnes/hour MOBICAT MC 120 Z PRO mobile jaw crusher, the 470tonnes/hour capacity MOBICONE MCO 11 PRO mobile cone crusher, and the up to 500tonnes/hour MOBISCREEN MS 953 EVO classifying screen could be seen on the Wirtgen Group’s huge indoor stand.
“The big challenge here is to sell not only these machines, but also the concept of crushing on tracks,” said Mark Hezinger, Kleemann’s marketing manager. “There is huge potential for our tracked-based plant in the Chinese market, and we can benefit from the Wirtgen Group’s wide dealership reach and established status.
“We are seeing that it is easier for many Chinese plant operators to get permits for tracked mobile plant crushing than for stationary plant crushing. There is also great potential resale value with tracked mobile plant.”
Hezinger said that growing competition in the Chinese tracked mobile plant market would likely lead to a fall in model prices in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Kleemann’s first Chinese market model, the MOBIREX MRI 30 EVO 2 mobile impact crusher launched in 2012, continues to prove a popular model with customers. “The model gives you a good final product in one crushing stage. It also gives you a very good shaped product,” explained Hezinger.
Kleemann has staged several highly successful Technology Days in China in the last two years. “We are really happy about how the Chinese market is developing. All the effort that we have put in are starting to pay off.”
With the three PRO Line models being showcased in Shanghai, Kleemann is developing innovative plant which are very powerful and efficient, leaving them well equipped to cope with the demands of natural stone processing.
Emphasising Kleemann’s focus on premium state-of-the-art crushers and screeners, Hezinger said that 90% of the firm’s current global sales are generated by models less than four years old.
During show week, Terex staged a breaking-ground ceremony on the site of what will be a new assembly and fabrication facility for Genie aerial work platforms in Changzhou, eastern China.
Kieran Hegarty, president of Terex Materials Processing (Terex MP), and Colin Clements, Powerscreen global product line director, attended the event – marking the latest stage of ambitious Terex’s Chinese market development.
Powerscreen, the major Terex MP global quarrying equipment manufacturer, which offers a full product line-up to Chinese customers, is expected to share the facility with Genie at some stage in the future.
Joe Cassidy, Powerscreen’s sales and applications support manager, said: “We now have five dealers in China and are concentrating on the eastern part of the country. We’ve focused on getting boots on the ground in sales and machine servicing, including two Chinese-speaking equipment servicing technicians. We’ve also been educating the market on the great benefits of tracked mobile machines.”
Cassidy said Powerscreen had sold 13 machine models [up to late Nov 2018] since entering the Chinese market in early 2017. “The Premiertrak 400X [jaw crusher], the 1000 Maxtrak [mobile cone crusher] and the 1700 Chieftain [screener] are popular models, and the Trakpactor 500 [horizontal impact crusher] and Warrior 1400 [screener] are starting to get traction in the market. We see great potential here. We are market leaders elsewhere, so the ambition is to be market leaders here.”
Cassidy said Chinese aggregates market demand is very strong, and he stressed the immense potential for equipment manufacturers like Powerscreen in China’s construction and demolition waste recycling sector.
In its first five months as Sandvik Mobile Crushers & Screens’ Chinese market dealer, Pota Environment (Shanghai) sold 20 units - and is forecasting a strong sales year in 2019.
Three jaw-cone-screener plant trains have been bought by Xindadi, a Beijing-based aggregates processing company, which is using the nine machines to process gneiss into 0-8mm and 8-28mm final products for highways and other infrastructure works’ customers in and around China’s capital.
“The customer is able to produce 600 tonnes an hour of material, 200 tonnes an hour with each plant train, and the plant have been working for over 2,000 hours, 16-18 hours a day. He has a full machine servicing package because of the hard nature of the material,” said Simon Unwin, Sandvik sales and applications support manager. “The customer was with us at the first two days of the show and is looking to buy more Sandvik Mobiles’ equipment.”
Unwin said that Chinese aggregates processing customers are moving away from buying Chinese crushing and screening equipment because they like the quality, durability and reliability of the equipment that Sandvik and other leading premium global market manufacturers can supply.
He also stressed how Sandvik customers welcome the way in which the manufacturer’s PlantDesigner software package can tailor their plant to their application needs. “With it, we can assess how abrasive the material is, likely throughput volumes and other factors. This allows us to build in contingencies,” explains Unwin.
“There’s a big urbanisation process taking place in China which is leading to a lot of construction and demolition waste recycling; this is creating a big potential market for Sandvik’s Prisec impactors,” said Lingnan Hua, Pota product manager for Sandvik Mobile Crushers & Screens.
“There is a lot more environmental regulation coming into the Chinese aggregates sector. The government is trying to merge smaller quarries into bigger ones. They are giving bigger quarries more long-term licences. With less aggregates suppliers in the market, the price of aggregates will go up.”
Pota, whose eastern and southern China sales network coverage includes Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Guangdong, was also in Shanghai promoting Sandvik’s new automation and control telematics system, My Fleet. Developed initially for the Q range of Sandvik mobile crushers, the innovative digital solution provides remote access to critical data on location and machine utilisation, enabling operational machine optimisation. It also assists customers in their planning of service and maintenance schedules, leading to more efficient and cost-effective operations.
“Chinese customers have immediately taken to it,” said Hua, “as they are keen to monitor the performance of their machines very closely. Customers also like a nice back story and very much like Sandvik’s long global history in the aggregates business.”
In China, Pota offers customers the complete range of Sandvik Mobiles Crushers & Screens. “There’s big potential here for the larger Sandvik mobile jaw crushers,” said Unwin. “In 2019 in China and elsewhere, we will be making a big push on our U range of heavy-duty equipment, including the UJ440i jaw crusher and UH440i mobile cone crusher.”
Keestrack increased its Chinese unit sales by more than 20% in the first 11 months of 2018, compared to the same period of 2017. The mobile crushing and screening plant manufacturer was on course to sell around 60 machines in the full calendar year.
Thomas Hagspiel, the company’s China and Southeast Asia managing director, said the Belgian global crushing and screening equipment firm had been delighted with Chinese customers’ response to Keestrack’s product offer over the past four years. The company is currently second only to Kleemann in annual China market mobile track-mounted plant sales.
The latest encouraging unit sales figures are a vindication of Keestrack’s decision to launch its own subsidiary in China, Keestrack Construction Equipment, in 2007. Keestrack China covers the Chinese and South Asian markets with a state-of-the-art production facility located in Chuzhou. The subsidiary also has a fast-growing sales organisation. In 2012, the Chinese factory produced the first hybrid, diesel/electric classifier, the Keestrack C6e, especially for the Chinese market.
Four key models were unveiled at bauma China 2018. The track-mounted B4 jaw crusher, also available in hybrid plug-in B4e version with drop-off power-supply module, ensures less wear and better crushing capacities due to its double-deck vibrating pre-screen (2300mm x 1000mm). The 600mm maximum feed-size plant has a throughput capacity of up to 400tonnes/hour.
Also on show were the up to 250tonnes/hour fully-hybrid H4e cone crusher, the up to 500tonnes/hour tracked R6 mobile impact crusher, and the proven 600tonnes/hour capacity K6 scalper, now also available with an energy-saving hybrid plug-in electric drive.
Kjell Sorlie, owner of Oslo Pukk Kjell Sorlie AS, a granite aggregate processing business near Oslo, Norway, has become the first buyer globally of Keestrack’s B7 hybrid mobile tracked jaw crusher, fitted with a Sandvik CJ412 jaw box. “I’m using 25 litres of fuel an hour compared to 60 litres with my previous jaw plant,” said Sorlie, “that will save me NOK 450,000 a year (US$52,200). I’m very happy with its productivity as well as its fuel saving.”
Michael Brookshaw, Keestrack global distributor manager, said: “We are having an incredible show. It’s like another bauma Munich. It’s really been an international exhibition. We’ve had visitors from South America, Russia and other countries.”
Austrian global compact crusher manufacturer RUBBLE MASTER is benefiting from a growing dealership presence in the Chinese market – with 11 local sales partners signed up in just one year.
The latest local sales partner, based in Beijing, has been recruited recently by RUBBLE MASTER’s five-employee strong, Tianjin-based sales subsidiary, Tianjin RUBBLE MASTER Technology. RUBBLE MASTER’s sales reach now stretches from Jilin in China’s north-east, to Guangdong in the south, and as far west as Sichuan.
The company is exhibiting the RM 100GO! compact crusher, which is said by Shaun Montgomery, RUBBLE MASTER’s sales manager, to be proving a popular model among customers, along with the larger RM 120GO!
Both the 29tonne RM 100GO! and the 35tonne RM 120GO! are low-noise level crushers said to be durable, reliable and long lasting. The RM 100GO! has a capacity of up to 250tonnes/hour, depending on feed material. The RM 120GO! can process up to 350tonnes/hour of material. The crusher duo is said by RUBBLE MASTER to produce an excellent final aggregate product.
Speaking about the popularity of the RM 120GO! machine, Sheng Shi, RUBBLE MASTER China sales manager, said: “Customers like the fact that they can process a lot of aggregates material with just one crusher. They are forward thinking and know that if they have a bigger mobile crusher they can do a wider range of work. It is also a great model for construction and demolition waste recycling.”
Tianjin RUBBLE MASTER Technology has staged two successful ‘Product Champion’ events in Tianjin in 2018.
“Customers are very important to us and we can’t service their needs properly without having well-trained sales teams. The training done at these events falls under the RUBBLE MASTER Academy Programme,” explained Montgomery.
“We’ve sold five machines since our Tianjin subsidiary began recruiting local sales partners in December 2017. The feedback we have been getting from customers has been really pleasing. The weight to throughput ratio is extraordinarily good with our compact crushers.
“With RUBBLE MASTER’s acquisition of Maximus, we are fully into the natural stone side of the materials processing industry. We will continue with the current two-brand strategy.”
Montgomery said production facilities at RUBBLE MASTER’s Linz, Austria HQ are set to expand within the next 18 months as the company looks to cater for rising demand for its machines.
Chinese aggregates processing equipment firm Yifan says its comprehensive product portfolio is in big demand not only in China, but also in other markets, including Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.
Headquartered in Zhengzhou, eastern China, Yifan offers a complete range of crushing, screening and washing plants to the aggregates sector. The company has manufacturing and assembly factories in Zhengzhou, Jiangxi and Shanghai, and offices in Beijing, and emphasises that its production process is based on lean manufacturing. Yifan also has a highly successful wear parts supply business.
“We are renowned for the quality of our machines and for our aftersales service,” said Demi Wei, Yifan sales manager. “The Chinese market is good and it’s getting better. Our government is supporting the construction market in cities and has introduced more environmental regulation around aggregates processing. Both are good things and we are gaining more domestic sales.”
Wei said Yifan’s Zhengzhou operation alone had posted RMB 1 billion (US143.76mn) in unit sales in 2017. “We want to develop our sales reach and sell into Europe and North America. Currently, we are focusing on appointing more sales agents.”
Among Yifan’s many successful installations are a large up to 400tonnes/hour civil manufactured sand production line for eastern China-based Zhejiang Richangsheng Building Materials Company; a 250tonnes/hour granite production line for a customer in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; and a 200tonnes/hour stationary stone crushing plant with steel foundation for a customer in Sri Lanka.
