Hitachi's Silver Lining - Pdworld.com

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Hitachi’s SilPDi’s demolition talkwith Hitachi’s Mark BurghoornMark Burghoorn is thedemolition productmanager at HitachiConstruction Machinery(Europe) NV. He hasconsiderable experiencein the demolitionindustry and sharedhis outlook on thedemolition market’strends and Hitachi’simmediate and longtermplans with PDi’sAndrei Bushmarin.40 PDi • Issue 2 • May - June 2011
ver Lining!Although Hitachi Construction Machinery Group hasa long track record of building machines for demolitionapplications, its European subsidiary diversified into thisbusiness about six years ago. The construction industry wasbooming at the time, and OEM machines of high qualitywere in keen demand in Europe. Then the world began toslip into recession, with building projects getting mothballedalmost everywhere. But every cloud has a silver lining andin Hitachi’s case, the silver lining turned out to be brighterthan anyone might have expected. Mark contends thatthis particular crisis was actually positive for the demolitionsector because it sent a wake-up call to dealers. Whendemand for general construction machinery plummeted,dealers were forced to find alternative options to prop uptheir dwindling revenues. Once they realized the real valueand profit-making potential behind demolition, sales ofspecialized demolition equipment began to climb back upall over Europe.decided to forge ahead and further extend the wheeled line.The future shines brightWith 1,400 demolition machines built since 2002, HitachiConstruction Machinery has firmly established itself asone of the world’s leading OEM manufacturers. Its Europeandaughter company has done an equally good jobin promoting the Hitachi brand on the continent. Withan extensive 40 plus dealer network, a parts distributioncentre in Oosterhout and a factory and training centre inAmsterdam, HCME is well positioned to provide its customerswith OEM machines and spare parts in an efficientand quick manner. The recession loosens its grip now, andHitachi is determined to use the impending upswing toturn a mere silver lining into a solid-gold advantage overthe competition.www.hcme.comDifferent customer mentalityHitachi designs and builds its demolition excavators in Japan.It means by default they are extremely productive andreliable. But it also means that they are very task-specific.It reflects the key difference in the Japanese and Europeanapproaches to demolition. In Japan, it is a common practiceto use a few demolition machines, each unit for every task,on the same site. European contractors, on the other hand,always demand versatility from their machines. They wantan excavator that would be able to perform the entire rangeof demolition and material-handling jobs on its own. Thishas to be taken into consideration by every manufacturerthat wants to be competitive in Europe. Therefore, Hitachi’sJapanese and European operations are now finalizingtogether a new design concept for demolition excavators forthe European market.Ultra high-reach is not a priorityWhen asked about ultra high-reach applications over 40m,Mark said that making machines for these tasks would notbe part of Hitachi’s strategy. A demolition contractor maypurchase a standard Hitachi excavator and have it modifiedfor super high-reach jobs. Hitachi’s ZX-3 series, for instance,is particularly popular with the manufacturers that createspecial demolition one-offs, and a good number of exoticmachines have been devised on this basis. However, therewill be no serial production of ultra high-reach machinesany time soon. The company is rather more interestedin developing a market for small demolition excavatorsranging between 8.5 and 25t. According to Mark, this segmenthas huge potential and definitely is one of Hitachi’spriorities now.Mark Burghoorn is the demolitionproduct manager at Hitachi ConstructionMachinery (Europe) NV.Good year for wheelsMaterial handling has always been and will remain paramountfor Hitachi. The European subsidiary began to supplyfactory-modified machines for material handling some twoand half years ago. The current line-up includes six modelswith four crawler and two wheeled versions. Mark says itis the wheeled end of the range that attracts most interestfrom the customers. The 2011 order portfolios for the 28tZX250W-3 and 36.5t ZX250W-3 wheeled excavators arealready full to the brim. Fuelled by their success, Hitachi hasIssue 2 • May - June 2011 • PDi 41
Page 5 and 6: FRD-HYDRAULIC BREAKERS ANDDEMOLITIO
Page 8 and 9: Words from the past IACDS President
Page 10: Words from O’BrienProactiveLeader
Page 13 and 14: We are looking for retailers in Ger
Page 15: Hilti DST 10-Ewall saw systemMore s
Page 20: Technical specificationsHB 2 000 HB
Page 26: Caterpillar’s new H25D hydraulic
Page 29: What ever your needs for demolition
Page 33: A NEW GENERATIONDEMOLITION MACHINES
Page 36 and 37: Updates for Komatsu Dash 8Demolitio
Page 38 and 39: 38 PDi • Issue 2 • May - June 2
Page 42 and 43: Liebherr andthe macaronisThe Liebhe
Page 44 and 45: Demolition - a focVolvo Constructio
Page 46 and 47: ack of a generally rising tide of r
Page 48 and 49: Hired shot blastersaim up at reserv
Page 50 and 51: New Doosan 22.5 t ExcavatorDoosan h
Page 52 and 53: Bingo! Full housefor JCB high reach
Page 54 and 55: The success factors of aproductive
Page 56 and 57: Competition intenin tracked mobileT
Page 58: Mini crushers vs large scale crushe
Page 61 and 62: The new CAPTOR wall sawincredibly f
Page 63 and 64: IronHustler’s DustSupressionIronH
Page 65 and 66: Some pictures from the production f
Page 67 and 68: Cut it all with theCarbodiam Cobrat
Page 69 and 70: Caterpillar launched its new mini e
Page 71 and 72: OilQuick - for efficient demolition
Page 73 and 74: ST GO ON!Siegfried Uebleis, Braun
Page 75 and 76: Yourcomplete sourceforBREAKING rock
Page 77 and 78: popular wire with quarrying compani
Page 79 and 80: tages withertificationof quality, e
Page 81 and 82: 2 0 1 2DEMCON 2012A Show WorthWaiti
Page 83: www.arden-equipment.frC/Sierra de G

Hitachi's Silver Lining - Pdworld.com

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?