A Turkish marble producer tests a used dump truck before buying it for his quarry
Ermas Mermer, a Turkish marble producer, operates five quarries from its headquarters near Yatagan in western Mugla province.
Two are in the Yatagan area and three are further south, near the city of Antalya. Three associated factories handle the output from the quarries.
In business since 1985, total annual production of marble runs to 150,000tonnes/year, which, thanks to its high quality, is in growing demand worldwide. Of this total, some 75,000tonnes is excavated at the Yatagan quarries, where the company uses 28 earthmoving machines including hydraulic excavators, wheeled loaders and articulated dump trucks, of which eight are
Company owner Muhammed Ercan says that before 2008 it would have been difficult to spot a Cat machine on site.
“We had in fact bought an old Cat machine back in 1997, and that was still in use; in fact it still is today,” says Muhammed Ercan.
By 2009, growth in the business meant that Ermas Marble needed to expand its fleet and was considering buying one, or perhaps two, articulated dump trucks, probably second-hand machines.
Izmir-based Turkish Cat dealer
According to Caterpillar, ten days’ of extensive performance evaluation, with performance recorded and evaluated at the end of every day, convinced the company that its reluctance to consider Cat machines was misplaced.
“Over the course of the demonstration it became clear that the Cat machine was delivering more usable power than the other machine for the same fuel consumption. So it was able to work faster for the same fuel use, and would therefore offer us higher productivity,” says Muhammed Ercan, who still hesitated before committing himself to buying the used Cat machine.
“We were already using the non-Cat machines in our quarries so we knew their capabilities, whereas the Cat machine, although it performed brilliantly in the trial, was still an unknown in terms of reliability, maintenance and durability. Would it continue to work for us as effectively as it had during the demonstration period?
“And, it has to be said that the second-hand Cat machine would still be more expensive to buy than an equivalent second-hand model of our usual brand. So we needed reassurance that we would be making the right decision by going with Cat.”
Borusan Makina offered a warranty package. “It dispelled all our worries about reliability, servicing, everything, particularly the 3,000 hours warranty. On a four-year old machine that’s a good deal,” claims Muhammed Ercan.
“Consequently we made the decision in favour of Cat and put the 725 straight to work.
“When we bought it we added 2,000 hours on the clock. We’re now expecting to use the machine for another five years; that will be around 15,000 hours in total.”
Ermas Marble has now invested in more Cat equipment: a mixture of new and used machines that brings the company’s Cat equipment inventory to a total of ten machines.
The company claims its decision to invest in used Cat equipment makes sound economic sense, being a “simple matter of cost versus performance and reliability.”
Muhammed Ercan adds: “Take the trucks we use to transport marble from the quarry face to the processing sites. Like every other marble producer in Turkey, we’ve used on-road trucks. Though they’re not ideal, they’re cheap to buy compared with quarry-specific off-road trucks. But if you can buy a used articulated dump truck instead, with the kind of back-up we’re getting from Borusan Makina as part of the deal, you can guarantee that it will work harder, longer, and in all conditions.”
