European OEM manufacturing strength showcased at INTERMAT 2015

432 INTERMAT 2015 in Paris is the global construction equipment sector’s biggest show of this year, and there was plenty to justify that billing during the event held 20-25 April.

From a European OEM perspective, and my own keen quarrying equipment focus, 8080 Terex Trucks major show debut as an independent company following its acquisition last year by Volvo Construction Equipment was a very newsworthy event.

The Motherwell, Scotland-based articulated and hauler dump truck manufacturer is geared for growth, with Sam Wyant, the company’s global sales director, telling me at the show that the 3573 Volvo CE effect is already making itself positively felt in everything from production and R&D, to dealerships and aftermarket support.

The huge INTERMAT 2015 presence of the Germany-based 475 Wirtgen Group, with recently acquired 387 Benninghoven, a leading asphalt plant manufacturer, taking its place alongside fellow successful Group brands including 6047 Vögele, 425 Hamm, and, for crushing and screening, 435 Kleemann, was another powerful demonstration of the global commercial reach of Europe-based OEMs.

Big news during the show week was the Volvo Group’s announcement that they had removed Olof Persson from his role as Group president and chief executive officer. This move followed pressure from certain shareholders due to the Group’s weak financial performance in recent years. Since 2012, Persson had overseen a US$1.15bn cost-cutting programme within the Volvo Group. 661 Scania’s head Martin Lundstedt is due to replace him in October 2015, with the Volvo Group’s chief financial officer, Jan Gurander, standing in as temporary president and CEO. All industry eyes will now be on Persson’s next career move.

While the European construction equipment market is still some 40% below the record levels of 2007, it was encouraging to hear Eric Lepine, president of 7836 CECE (the Committee for European Construction Equipment), saying during INTERMAT 2015 that the industry was last year already back to significant growth, albeit coming from low levels.

Furthermore, CECE is tipping further growth this year to come from hard-hit markets such as Spain, Portugal and Italy whereas matured markets such as the UK, Germany or Scandinavian countries which experienced already robust growth in 2014, will likely remain stable.

A quarry owner’s legal and environmentally-based requirements to drill rather than blast during the aggregate production process is the key theme of the Estonia-based Quarry Profile in your latest edition of Aggregates Business Europe.

Looking further East, Chechnya’s growing status as a hotbed for aggregates production is examined, as the continuing Western trading sanctions placed on Russia create commercial opportunities for its neighbouring nations.

Based in Todmorden, county West Yorkshire, England, 2836 Weir Minerals Europe is a leader in delivering and supporting slurry equipment solutions including pumps, hydrocyclones, valves, screen machines and screen media, for quarrying, mining and minerals processing. ABE executive editor Pat Smith spoke to Tony Locke, the firm’s managing director, about how the hugely successful business has developed, and its future growth strategy.

We remain in the UK & Ireland for our latest Market Report, which paints a picture of two neighbouring markets both tipped for growth in demand for aggregates and new construction and quarrying equipment to extract and process them.

I can’t end this comment piece without turning my attention to the European cement sector and the highly eventful and still not completed merger of French giant 725 Lafarge and its Swiss counterpart 680 Holcim. Another big twist in the plot of this seemingly never ending tale saw Eric Olsen recently announced as the future CEO of what will be the newly created company, LafargeHolcim. The move was approved by both companies’ directors after being proposed by current Lafarge chairman and CEO Bruno Lafont, who was initially earmarked for the top job at the new merged firm. Olsen, the current executive vice-president of Lafarge in charge of operations, will take on his new role on the completion of the multi-billion euro merger later this year.