Next year’s Construction Machinery Show is taking place in Dammam
This year’s Construction Machinery Show 2013 came to Jeddah in April and showcased a sector that is helping to build an exciting future for Saudi Arabia.
Leading local and regional players in the heavy machinery industry in KSA and across the GCC were out in force in the coastal city of Jeddah as the largest construction and equipment exhibition in the region when the Construction Machinery Show opened its doors in April.
The event was inaugurated by His Excellency Hani Abu Ras, mayor of Jeddah in the presence of the show’s Asian and European delegates. Following a brief ribbon cutting ceremony, Dr Abu Ras – who recently picked up an award for the development of the year at the Big Project Awards – declared the show open.
This year’s event featured major industry players in the KSA construction equipment industry including Saudi Diesel Equipment, Roots Group Arabia, Kanoo Machinery, Abahsain Co, Al Qahtani, and many more.
“This year’s event saw the display of over 70 brands showing the latest heavy construction and machinery equipment,” said Raz Islam organiser of the event. “It comes to support a booming construction market in the Kingdom which is eager to learn more ways to apply new technologies and efficient construction methods that would further enhance the market and increase its construction capabilities.”
Raz further pointed out: “This is the largest exhibition of its kind and the exhibitors should be proud and therefore invest in stand designs and branding. If you represent a major brand, you should follow the guideline set by the manufacturer. It is great to see the event looking professional and getting better every year. The gathering of all these players is an ideal opportunity for all to benefit from their presence and their experience.”
The Construction Machinery Show’s success was also an indication of the constant growth of the construction market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia which is the largest construction market in the Middle East.
The Kingdom is home to an array of multibillion dollar projects with a diverse set of industries from hospitals and medical facilities to universities, cities and industrial and infrastructure projects, all due to complete construction projects within the coming decade. The show featured companies showcasing a host of construction and machinery products, services and solutions ranging from diggers to crawlers, from cranes to trucks, and lighting firms to generator businesses.
The massive range on show demonstrated why the Saudi market for heavy equipment is the dominant force in the Middle East. Neighbouring markets such as: the UAE, which has plateaued since collapsing following the global financial crisis; Qatar which is still awaiting its own FIFA World Cup 2022 and Vision 2030 boom; are all considered potentially exciting areas.
However, if you want to see the biggest range and volume, the Kingdom is the place to be. Subsequently the show was a mixture of established dealers in the market such as Saudi Diesel and Kanoo, as well as some of the biggest names in the industry tussling for a share of contractor and operator attention like Sany, JCB, TATA, Case (via Roots Group) and LiuGong, and many others.
The Saudi Diesel stand was arguably the most impressive among a packed show, showcasing and reflected managing director and CMME April’s Heavy Hitter Raad Abduljawad’s philosophy that the Kingdom needs a forum to bring together as many players in the industry as possible.
“We need a construction machinery show in the country that is successful,” he said. “We need to support it and we will invite our competition to do so.”
In and among an impressive collection of equipment on the stand was the Doosan DA40 articulated dump truck. The product of Doosan’s acquisition of Norweigian specialist Moxy, it packs a Scania engine and offers a 10% increase in engine power compared to the previous MT41 model by Moxy. The model also comes with a 22% increase in gross torque to 2373 Nm at 1,300 rpm. The huge Doosan machine was first revealed 18 months ago but Saudi Diesel feels that it is now ready to become a popular fixture on sites and operations in the country.
Saudi Diesel has increasingly moved into offering its products and services on short and long term lease agreements to customers, including diesel engines and generators, forklifts, excavators, compressors and maintenance services.
The company claims that this has had a “tremendous impact” on the bottom-line for its clients and has earned enough support for SDEC to necessitate transferring this line of business to a new business operation called PEAX. Providing power and lighting throughout the event, PEAX also currently owns and operates a fleet of` shuttle buses and other transport operations, besides continuing its lease business for Saudi Diesel’s engines, generators and ancillary machinery.
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Upwardly mobile market
At the other side of the show floor Al-Areedh chose to present Chinese giant Sany’s mighty range of mobile cranes.
The Al-Khobar-based dealer has been operating for 35 years and has amassed a fleet of over 1,000 mechanical, hydraulic and telescopic cranes. The company says its investment in heavy equipment has been necessary to keep up with the massive development projects currently being implemented in the Kingdom.
Al-Areedh’s client base includes major forces in the Saudi market such as Saudi Aramco, Sabic (one of the principal partners at the adjacent SBIE event) and the Saudi National Guard.
As well as a series of power plants where mobiles tend to excel, projects where Al-Areedh has been active include the King Saud University, industrial residential cities in Jizan while in Jeddah it has been a major supplier to the King Abdul Aziz airport.
Its relationship with Chinese giant Sany has helped its expansion to accelerate in recent years and it has bought a staggering 400 machines over the last half decade. In 2011 alone it bought 132 machines for rental. Valued at 400 million Saudi Riyals ($100 million), the company told CMME that this could be the biggest single order for mobile cranes ever (for those taking note, the order included 30 100t cranes).
|The mobile crane has been one of the success stories of the Saudi market over the last decade. Contractors have dipped into the rental channel to lease the machines, preferring them for their flexibility and the ability to cater for a wide variety of choice for industrial and residential projects. They’ve also proved popular with power and oil and gas plant operators as the Kingdom continues to invest in the metals and oil and gas sectors.
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Mobile crane demand has been so great that Al-Areedh says out of its current fleet of 800 cranes it has zero availability. Small wonder in 2012 it spent a further $32 million to buy yet more inventory from Sany. Sany Group’s general manager of Mobile Cranes in the Middle East explained the manufacturer’s succeess.
“Within two years Sany sold 403 machines,” said explained Sany Mobile Cranes Middle East general manager Tang Wenbin. “The cooperation between Saudi Arabia and China improves every year. Sany is only 23 years and is now ranking at number five in the world. Our mobile crane factory is 4km2 and we have 20 factories across the world.”
First established in 1968, Rolaco is one of the oldest companies based in Jeddah. Capitalising on the positioning of the city on one of the world’s busiest and most important shipping routes, Rolaco has diversified its core business of wholesale construction supply into areas as diverse as shipping, contracting, transport and housing and commercial construction. On show was much of its equally diverse product portfolio including a selection of UD Trucks (its fleet ranges from 7-55t), an array of Nissan Forklifts and cranes from Kato. Also present from its concrete machinery section was a Sermac concrete pump.
“Everybody knows Rolaco,” joked Al Shareef Moufaq Al Harithy, CEO of Al Harithy Company for Exhibition (ACE) while visiting the stand.
Also showing concrete pumps at the event was Kanoo Machinery. The 47m HJC5330THB pump truck represents Shantui’s latest foray away from bulldozers. Mounted on a Mercedes Actros truck and with an overall reach of 46.8 on its 5-stage boom arm, the model shows further progress from its roots with Chutian, combining the latter’s 20-year experience in concrete machinery with Shantui’s mature QC and parts and service network.
While the show boasted one of the oldest companies in Jeddah with Al-Areedh, in Al-Jomaih it had one of the earliest trading pioneers in Saudi Arabia. Established in 1936, the company has kept pace with commercial and industrial boom experienced in the Kingdom and has a prominent position in a huge array of industries, such as automobile, tyres, lubricants, soft drinks, agriculture machinery, foodstuffs and of course heavy machinery.
Taking over an entire corner of the Construction Machinery Show, the company displayed its dizzying range of equipment including forklifts from TCM and a wide selection of kit from the UK’s JCB. The British company owns its own power and engine technology and the equipment on display brought home its desert capabilities. The Ecomax version of the 3CX version of its signature backhoe line was a particular highlight of the event.
El Didi Group’s T Sharqawi Trading chose to split its area to highlight its diverse set of brands. Recent additions to its Lonking inventory including the CDM885E wheel loader were attention grabbers as were its forklifts and grader.
The company is also a representative for Zoomliom’s mobiles many of which were out boom-extended. Arguably however it was the massive Soilmec SR90, the enormous drilling rig with a 15m self-erecting mast that was the star of the show.
With Hyundai and Tata showcasing their commercial vehicles; the Roots Group showing not just CASE but also its power solutions while highlighting its cranes from Wolffkran; Ieveco and its trucks and Weichai engines; Hertz and its rental range; and finally Gulf Installments and its Shariah-compliant financing options this was the best Construction Machinery Show yet.