A culture of innovation and engineering expertise, together with strong ties to academia and an integrated local supply chain, is sustaining long-term growth in Northern Ireland’s quarrying equipment sector.
The density of Northern Ireland’s quarrying equipment manufacturing sector and its engineering excellence has created an environment of competitiveness, efficiency and innovation.
The region has developed an integrated supply chain that incorporates belting, fabrication, components, hydraulics, electrics and control panels.
Combine this with a global footprint driven by a strong distribution network that is comfortable operating globally and the sector’s outlook continues to look healthy.
Not that anyone in the industry is taking this for granted.
Telestack commercial director (part of the Astec crushing, screening and material handling business) Malachy Gribben said the Tyrone area specifically is “the heartbeat of the global mobile crushing and screening sector, and mobile material handling.”
“A lot of our competition from outside Northern Ireland are playing catchup on what we did ten or 15 years ago. It’s vital for us to keep innovating and we are very focused on new technologies and new designs,” he said.
“At Telestack, we are developing new solutions around the intake and loadout systems at quarries.
“Tied into our quarry business is also our ship-loading business, as a lot of the quarries we deal with globally are processing the material and loading it onto boats to export, as well as importing aggregates.”
He said that Astec is developing new multi-frequency screening technology to improve the handling of difficult and sticky materials, that is being unveiled at the Hillhead quarrying equipment show (Buxton, UK, June 23-25).
Gribben said that the established ecosystem of suppliers in Northern Ireland, particularly in the Tyrone Cluster, has improved competitiveness.
“Having so many core components providers locally has been critical to helping the factories be more efficient and offer shorter lead times on the delivery of products than competitors outside of Northern Ireland,” he said.
Gribben said digitalisation is another area where Northern Ireland is well-placed for success going forward.
“At Astec, we have a dedicated team that deals with innovation around digital technologies, with one of the key aims to drive the operational efficiency, uptime and energy efficiency of the equipment,” he said.
As part of this, Astec has introduced the Signal Connectivity Suite, which includes mobile telematics to support customers in how they manage their operations.
Astec does its digitalisation research and development in-house, but Gribben said a whole network of digital solutions companies is developing in Northern Ireland to support equipment manufacturers on that path.
Northern Irish companies, such as Telestack, that started in the quarrying equipment industry, are now using the manufacturing and engineering expertise they have built up over decades to pivot very successfully and profitably into other sectors.
“We are really well-placed in the global mining industry,” Gribben said.
“Our conveying solutions are used in mines to handle iron, gold, copper and bauxite, and we are also helping these mines to export their products via our ship loading and unloading systems.
“We’ve used the expertise we’ve built up over several decades in quarrying to move into mining and help drive that business.”
He said that such diversification into other sectors is important for Northern Irish companies that have traditionally operated in quarrying, but face increasing competition from equipment manufacturers in Europe, India and China.
Gribben said that another factor strengthening Northern Ireland’s position in the quarrying equipment sector is its close ties with educational institutions.
“In the last number of years, there has been a very proactive approach to working with academia from manufacturers like ourselves,” he said.
“That has been critical to help us develop the next generation of leaders and innovators within our industry, not just in engineering but in manufacturing and the supply chain.”
Invest Northern Ireland’s head of western region Ethna McNamee highlighted the work of South West College (SWC) in supporting the growth of the sector in the region. The college operates across three main campuses located in Dungannon, Enniskillen and Omagh and is specialised in advanced manufacturing and engineering, with the objective of servicing the skills needs of the region’s manufacturers.
It supports the local engineering sector through apprenticeships, degree apprenticeships and collaboration with industry to drive growth.
Invest NI alongside Mid Ulster Council has also supported MEGA (Manufacturing, Engineering, Growth and Advancement) in this area. MEGA is an industry-led network in mid-Ulster, established in 2019, to address skills shortages by attracting, developing, and retaining talent.
“They have alongside SWC have helped ensure the manufacturing companies here have a skilled pipeline of suitably qualified people with the expertise that’s needed for the future growth of the sector,” McNamee said.
Invest Northern Ireland’s Andrew Greer said Northern Ireland’s history in mobile machines, remained a key factor.
“The flexibility and scalability of the mobile concept, with modularity and linking machines together, has driven and is still driving the sector,” Greer said.
“There is mobile equipment for block making, concrete batching plants, waste picking and recycling. That is something we still lead with. It means that companies and customers can scale up as required. You’ve got crushing, screening and recycling all in one product and that came from Northern Ireland.”
Sandvik has a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Ballygawley, County Tyrone. Sandvik Rock Processing Solutions mobile crushing and screening division president Manny Maloney is an Australian national based in Sweden who spends a lot of time in Northern Ireland on business.
Maloney said it is impressive to observe the scale of the Northern Irish mobile crushing and screening equipment ecosystem.
“You see this area that at face value looks quite rural and idyllic, but you have this very competitive landscape of mobile crushing and screening companies,” he said.
“The density and competition drive significant levels of innovation, and it’s a very good example of the economic theory of creative destruction – you need to evolve or you’ll perish.”
From Sandvik’s perspective, Maloney said this drives the company to try to accelerate its development cycle.
Speed to market is important, but it is also vital to differentiate from competitors.
“We’re a premium supplier, so we want to support our customers maximising productivity, safety and sustainability,” he said.
“We’re constantly looking to innovate features maximising those benefits versus our competition, and you see that across the industry.”
Maloney said the region’s integrated supply chain for equipment manufacturers has proved to be one of its great strengths.
“Over the last 20 to 25 years the overriding trend has been for globalisation, but COVID-19 showed the inherent risk in having these long supply chains,” he said.
“Subsequently there has been a push to ‘re-shore’ manufacturing and portions of the supply chain to build in security and resilience.”
Maloney said the vast majority of Sandvik’s suppliers for its Ballygawley facility are locally based.
“The benefit of that is you can build up partnership relationships rather than having a purely transactional relationship where you’re just trying to get the lowest possible price,” he said.
“This helps you with innovation and agility, and frankly, it’s much easier if you need something urgently to just go down the road and get it rather than trying to ring someone in a different time zone, a different language and a long delivery time. We’ve found that hugely beneficial.”
The area’s decades of engineering expertise and background in crushing and screening continues to have benefits. Maloney said there are units in Sandvik’s current offering that are based directly around legacy designs.
Examples of this are Sandvik’s QH332 cone crusher, which builds on the Fintec 1080, and Sandvik’s highest volume products, the QJ241 and QJ341 mobile jaw crushers, which are based on the Extec C10 and C12 units.
Sandvik bought mobile crushing and screening companies Fintec and Extec in 2007, both of which had manufacturing facilities in Northern Ireland.
Maloney said that the industry’s importance in Northern Ireland – with material processing equipment accounting for 20 per cent of all regional manufacturing employment – helps in attracting ongoing fresh talent to the sector.
“You often talk to people in our business, and they’ll say that their mother or father worked in the industry,” he said.
The strong global distribution and dealer network of many Northern Ireland manufacturers, established and expanded over many decades, is a further driver of growth.
Maloney said a prominent Northern Irish presence throughout the global sector helps to reinforce this region’s proud legacy.
“A number of our dealers in the US have very strong connections to Northern Ireland,” he said.
“I was in Australia last year, and our dealer in the Northern Territory is from near Ballygawley.
“They are very proud of the mobile crushing and screening heritage of Northern Ireland, and have a lot of industry knowledge, experience, and global connections.” AB
