Engineering & Mining Journal

APR 2016

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TRUCKS & SHOVELS 28 E&MJ; • APRIL 2016 www.e-mj.com Trucks and Shovels: Sizing Up the Situation Large-capacity mining shovel and truck purchases are fatlining, but suppliers hope new models and advancing technology can resuscitate customer demand By Russell A. Carter, Managing Editor Trucks, shovels and large wheel loaders have long been mainstays of primary pro- duction in most types of surface mining, and both OEM and aftermarket suppliers can point to decades of giving their cus- tomers what they've asked for—higher truck-body and bucket payloads, lower cost of operation, improved operator safe- ty and more—as a principal driving force that has kept truck/shovel mining at the forefront of the industry's technological interest for so long. In good times, miners ask for a lot— they love the big trucks, shovels, and loaders that allow them to operate fex- ibly and move more dirt, with less peo- ple in the pit and fewer trucks on the haul roads, so when reports emerge from equipment auctions in Australia, where late-model wheel loaders that originally cost almost $3 million are being sold for high-fve-fgure bids; or from South Amer- ica, where the world's largest Caterpillar dealer reported that only one mine in that highly active mining region had submit- ted a public tender for ultra-class haulage trucks (four) in the entire year of 2015, it effectively illustrates the depth of the industry's slump. In bad times, miners ask for less—a lot less. In fact, industry spending on big-ticket mobile surface equipment has been in a downward spiral for more than four years, dropping to a level in early 2016 that is about 75% less than the industry's most recent spending peak in early 2012. The Parker Bay Co., a U.S.-based market research frm spe- cializing in global surface-mining equip- ment sales and trends, recently released a market analysis for sales of high-capac- ity trucks, shovels and loaders (see side- bar) that explores this drop-off, noting that its results indicate "large surface mining equipment shipments…are now at levels not seen since the start of the commodities Super Cycle"—representing a 10-year low. Smaller Equipment— Strength in Numbers Although it's apparent that mine opera- tors have hit the brakes on large-equip- ment purchases, Parker Bay noted in a recent bulletin that there's a tiny ray of light inside the long, dark feet-acquisi- tion tunnel—although the total value of mine mobile equipment deliveries de- clined in the fourth quarter of 2015, the actual number of units shipped increased by 6% over the previous quarter. The higher number of equipment units shipped, however, is attributed to pur- chases of smaller trucks and dozers; mine operators just aren't spending money on ultra-class trucks, massive rope shovels or high-capacity excavators at this time, but high-grade/low-tonnage specialized operations in Africa, Asia and elsewhere are buying signifcant quantities of small- er equipment that more closely suits their needs. Volvo Construction Equipment's Terex Trucks division, for example, just delivered 29 Terex haulers—19 TR100s, rated at 100-ton capacity, and 10 TR60s, capable of carrying 60-ton payloads—to a jade-mining operation in Myanmar. A coal mine in Bosnia purchased nine Terex TA300 articulated trucks to haul 30-ton payloads out of the pit. In an example that underscores the focus on meeting specifc, affordable needs forced upon operators by current economic conditions, a large phosphate producer in Morocco found an alterna- tive to buying large, conventional service trucks to maintain its feet of 22 rig- id-body haulers, along with large wheel loaders, two dozen bulldozers, six drill rigs and several water tankers—it convert- ed two Volvo CE A30F articulated haulers into customized service vehicles that can effciently negotiate the rough terrain at the producer's mines. Scania, another global truck builder with a large presence in the over-the- Hitachi recently introduced fve new electric-powered, mining-class excavators that, except for the absence of diesel engines and their ancillary systems such as fuel tanks, muffers, etc., are functionally identical to the com- pany's popular diesel-powered versions such as the EX8000-6 shovel shown here.

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