Land of giants

To improve productivity, mining and heavy construction companies search for stronger equipment, pushing the market to loaders of higher capacity

The demand of medium and heavy loaders—with standard bucket above 3 cu.mt.—is growing yearly in Brazil, according to the manufacturers of this type of equipment that work in the country. Even without more reliable numbers, they estimate an increase of 15 percent in this market, mainly to attend mining and heavy infrastructure works. “Since this type of operation is being more and more flexible, larger loaders are indicated for work in more than one front and where, in addition, displacements to load trucks or crushers are required”, points Vladimir de Rafael Machado Filho, engineer of application and sales promotion of Komatsu.

The executive confirms that this demand by productivity is heating significantly the market of larger loaders, especially when the clients get positive answers in the first operation. And this obviously has a direct impact on manufacturers’ market strategies that are concerned in expanding their portfolios. “In Brazil, Komatsu offers equipment with standard buckets whose capacities vary from 3 to 35 cu.mt.”, says him.

STRENGTH

Liebherr sells in Brazil equipment with standard bucket capacity of 3.5 and 5 cu.mt., besides other models of lower capacity. According to Pedro Gaspar, product engineer of this German manufacturer, these machines are used in several applications, attending clients of mining, quarries, sand plants, contractors, wood handling companies, sugar mills and others. “Due to the strength requirements imposed by Liebherr for its equipment, most machines of this line are still directed to high-level applications in mining, extraction and heavy construction”, says him. “But during last years we are working strongly to increase our participation in other areas through new machine configurations and commercial and marketing actions”, completes Gaspar.

Expert in heavy machines of Case Construction Equipment, Guilherme Ferreira confirms the perception of market heating for equipment of larger capacity, also pointing that this increase goes up to 15 percent per year in sale statistics of the company. In Brazil, Case CE offers machines with buckets between 3.25 and 3.63 cu.mt. of capacity, but the executive says that the manufacturer also offers to other Latin American markets a model with 4.8 cu.mt.. “Machines of this size are used in larger works of construction and mining, areas that demand heavy handling of materials or where works involve materials of higher density or severity”, details the specialist.

Caterpillar is another player with expressive share in this market. The company produces loaders—classified by the company as medium size—whose bucket capacity goes from 3.5 to 5.5 cu.mt., powered by Tier III and Tier IV engines in some models. For the expert in product application Gecimar Morini, the demand for this type of equipment remained “linear” during the last two years, with an increased sales volume—in the specific case if this manufacturer—in the mining area. “Main clients are specially third-part companies that operate in mining”, says him. “We estimate that 40 percent of our sales are related to this area.”