With roots in the pioneering mobile screening technology of Finlay and Powerscreen, Northern Ireland has grown into a global leader in materials handling and quarrying equipment.
Drawing on the region’s rich engineering and fabrication heritage — from shipbuilding and aerospace to textiles and machinery production — Northern Ireland’s quarrying sector now commands a strong international reputation.
Its development dates back to the 1950s when John Finlay, who subsequently established the Finlay company, introduced the first self-contained mobile screening unit in 1958.
In 1966, Ulster Plant (later Powerscreen) was founded, pioneering the concept of bringing machinery to the quarry face.
From these beginnings, the “Tyrone Cluster” developed, a highly concentrated, globally dominant engineering and materials handling manufacturing hub in County Tyrone.
Hubert Watson, who worked at Powerscreen for 20 years and is now a consultant at Roco, which produces diesel-electric crushing and screening machines, shared his insights into the sector’s beginnings.
“The difference between Finlay and Powerscreen was probably that Finlay was more of an engineering company, and Powerscreen was more a marketing-led company,” he said.
“Powerscreen really took off in the mid-1980s when the world market started to grow.”
Terex Materials Processing president Kieran Hegarty said the area’s preponderance of small engineering workshops serving the agriculture sector helped create the conditions for growth in quarrying equipment, initially in the screening sector.
Terex’s range of quarrying equipment brands includes Powerscreen, Finlay, MAGNA, EvoQuip, Cedarapids, Simplicity, Canica, Terex Washing Systems (TWS), MDS and ProStack.
Hegarty said he would compare the industry’s organic growth to that of the US car industry in Detroit.
“Somebody would leave one company and set up another, and you end up with a cluster multiplying,” he said.
This growth included expansion beyond the industry’s initial mobile screening focus.
Northern Irish companies produce crushing and screening (including Finlay, Powerscreen, EvoQuip, MAGNA, Metso-owned Tesab Engineering, McCloskey International, Anaconda Equipment, RM Dungannon and Roco), conveying (Smiley Monroe, ProStack, QK Conveyors, Ezystack and Conveyortek) and washing equipment (Terex Washing Systems, CDE, Dernaseer Washing, Bruce Engineering and Circular Group) for the quarrying sector. Watson said that there has also been expansion into the concrete mixing and batching sector, with businesses including Rapid International, as well as major diversification in terms of engineering into the agricultural sector and the green waste sector for shredders and wind sifters.
An integral part of the ecosystem is a robust supply chain of companies servicing the major manufacturers. Watson said the existence of this supply chain has been critical.
“Without them, the crushing and screening sector would never have taken off. You can get pumps, motors, belts, electrics, and there are companies such as Specdrum in Dungannon who make drums for our industry,” he said.
“That whole supply chain is largely in Northern Ireland.”
Watson estimated the global market for tracked crushing and screening machines is about 7000 units per year, with a value of around £2bn. He said that, of this, Northern Irish manufacturers have a 60 to 65 per cent share of the tracked screens sector and 35 to 40 per cent of crushers. The country’s mobile crushing and screening equipment sector now employs 8000-plus people in over 100 companies, according to equipment dealer Finning. Following Northern Ireland’s early success in the screening sector, it came to prominence in crushing machine production in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Watson said the qualities of Northern Ireland’s workforce have driven the development of the industry and can help its future success.
“Irish people are very adaptable. Historically, it comes from the agricultural background. If a tractor broke, you couldn’t get a new tractor – fix the tractor,” he said.
Watson said that continuing its history of innovation and differentiation is crucial for the future expansion of Northern Ireland’s quarrying equipment sector.
He cited the example of Culloville, County Armagh-based Roco’s development of dual-powered hybrid electric crushers which provide more fuel-efficiency than standard diesel-hydraulic models. The sector has established a strong distribution network that is comfortable operating globally.
“A lot of Northern Ireland-based companies have established a very focused distribution network with specialised distributors who only sell materials processing equipment,” Hegarty said.
“They’re very knowledgeable in how to apply the equipment and I think it’s that mixture of very strong focussed distributors and high-quality equipment that has helped Northern Irish companies to be global leaders.”
He said there were other factors that have driven the country’s quarrying equipment sector, meaning it continues to be well-positioned.
“Northern Ireland benefits from its geography. If you’re shipping both to Europe and to North America, it is fairly short transit times. You can get a screen to America in less than 10 days,” he said.
“Also, the products that come out of Northern Ireland tend to be industry-leading, their designs and their names are considered to be quality.”
Hegarty said that 30 years ago, the majority of aggregates would have been produced by large stationary plants, but the market is now 50 to 60 per cent mobile-based.
“Mobile plants have advanced in terms of their capabilities,” he said. “Our MAGNA [high-capacity mobile crushing, screening and conveying] brand is an example. Ten years ago, no one would have thought you could buy a mobile plant that would process a thousand tonnes an hour.
“That greater capacity is the single biggest change, and the value proposition for mobile is so much stronger now globally.”
Hegarty said that business and economic development agency Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) provides invaluable help in developing the quarrying equipment sector.
“Over the years, they have given a lot of support, but kept it really focused on research and development [R&D], which I think has a lot of correlation with success. There is a continuous culture of [R&D] and Invest NI has helped stimulate that,” he said.
Invest Northern Ireland manager for the materials handling sector Andrew Greer said they were eager to help support the sector with its full range of services.
“We have a range of services and R&D is a big part of that,” he said.
“We can provide help with labour costs, design, prototype build, testing, right up to the finished product.
“We provide grants for small, and large companies as well. Some of these companies have been supply chain companies with the potential to develop their own product.”
The agency had its first stand at the UK Hillhead quarrying equipment show in 1993.
“We had 10 companies in that first year, and that has grown and grown,” Greer said
“It was Hillhead first and we then went on to do the ‘trifecta’ of shows with bauma in Munich, Intermat in Paris, and ConExpo in Las Vegas, and this was the first time we’d taken these companies outside of the UK.”
Greer said that a major objective of Invest NI is to help smaller companies gain worldwide distribution and set up dealerships, and that the organisation has a range of international offices to facilitate this endeavour. The quarrying equipment manufacturing sector in the region continues to grow and diversify, according to Invest Northern Ireland head of western region Ethna McNamee, whose area covers where many of the companies are based.
“The sector started with screening and crushing, and now it’s much more than that with a lot of engineering systems, soil remediation, blending machines,” she said.
“Other digital niches are growing that are allied to the sector including electronics software, and IT capabilities aligned to automation.
“In a year, there might be 50 start-up companies or new projects just in our local office, and maybe half of those will be engineering companies, so it’s often second-generation people whose father worked in Terex, and it’s very much a cultural thing now.
“People see that you can set up a business and be really successful in your own area. There’s a formula.” AB
