bauma 2016 Munich is creating a buzz around the construction and quarrying sector

It’s going to be one hell of a show. The recent pre-386 bauma 2016 Munich press event – officially known rather formally as the ‘media dialog’ – saw leading international construction and quarrying equipment OEMs and smaller yet globally ambitious firms offer assembled journalists from from across the world details of the wealth of new equipment and concepts they will unveil at the big 11-17 April exhibition, alongside other state-of-the art, market proven models.

Some of what will be seen at the world’s biggest construction and quarrying equipment sector exhibition can be found in this edition of Aggregates Business Europe, with more to follow in our March-April 2016 issue. A bauma Munich year is always an exciting one, with many of the efforts of OEMs’ highly skilled R&D teams in creating new machine models over the preceding three years usually seen for the first time at the event. ABE Executive Editor Patrick Smith and I will be among those with pens and cameras poised throughout bauma week.

Returning to this issue, I hope there will be lots that European quarry operators and managers can take from reading my coverage of the 10th annual 460 Sandvik Construction-3740 Dyno Nobel Quarry Academy held late last year in San Antonio, Texas.   

Key to the three-day event was how quarry operators can remain successful in the ‘New Normal’ – the global market following the 2008 global economic crisis. Creating a strong Value Management Chain - covering Planning, Drilling, Blasting, Load & Haul, Crushing, and Screening & Sizing – was said to be key, with various highly experienced professionals from Sandvik Construction, Dyno Nobel and Volvo Construction Equipment relaying practical examples of it to Academy attendees.

The final day of the event included an afternoon visit to Cemex’s Balcones Quarry near San Antonio – the largest working quarry in the United States. It was the ideal way to see first-hand the best practice articulated over the previous two-and-a-half days.

This issue of ABE includes the first of our Agg-intel branded features on the key issues within the modern aggregates industry. Hugo Pettingell, a quarry process specialist with many years of experience working with multinational companies worldwide, gives his views on how to meet the challenge of a maturing aggregates market.

Our Quarry Profile centres on 7447 Hope Construction Materials’ UK-based Black Cat Quarry’s deployment of what is claimed to be the world’s first integrated mobile washing plant offering feeding, screening, sand washing and stockpiling on one compact, portable chassis. All the details of the bespoke washing plant solution from 3702 CDE Global can be found in the two-page feature inside this issue.

Eastern Europe covers a vast geographical territory – and there are big differences in the size and performance of many of its national aggregates markets. Our Market Report details how new major transport infrastructure projects are creating big opportunities for aggregates suppliers. However, the huge Russian aggregates market is depressed – with one senior Minister fearing a further 20% fall in demand, as Russian economic stagnation continues.

It’s fair to say that the excitement of a bauma Munich year is matched by a realism that the going remains tough in many European - and the wider world - aggregates and construction equipment markets.