Construction Machinery Middle Eas

ISSUE 9 JULY 2012

RENTAL PLAYER Saudi Cranes takes KSA renting to a new level

OCEAN RACER EXCLUSIVE Adil Khalid’s

global journey

THE JCB STORY

OLYMPIAN HEIGHTS

Winning on the world stage

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

PLUS: ACROSS THE INDUSTRY

* NEWS & VIEWS * FORKLIFTS * DEMOLISHING THE MET * AND MORE

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Thenew Putzmeister Concrete Pumps GmbH · 72631 Aichtal · Germany · www.putzmeister.com Putzmeister Middle East · Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) · Swiss Tower · Office 1403 · P.O. Box 262657 · Dubai, U.A.E. · Tel: +971 (0) 4 454 27 83 · Fax: +971 (0) 4 454 27 82 For inquiries: (General) Jens Bawidamann, Regional Director E-Mail: BawidamannJ@pmw.de Mobile: +971 (0) 506009972

(Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) Bastian Dreher, Sales & Project Manager E-Mail: DreherB@pmw.de Mobile: +971 (0) 501009985

(Oman, Qatar, U.A.E.) Derong Li, Sales & Project Manager E-Mail: LiD@pmw.de Mobile: +971 (0) 504818865

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Contents

36 IS S U E 9 JU LY 2 0 1 2

04

EDITORIAL From small beginnings CMME joins the Big Project team.

06

NEWS What’s happening across the region in construction machinery?

14

NEWS ANALYSIS Why is the competition for auction houses heating up?

page 29 “THEY WANT TO WORK” Jamil Assafiri of Saudi Cranes talks about the positive contribution that young Saudis can bring to the construction industry.

24

17

EXPERT OPINION Famco’s Paul Floyd on going from downturn to growth.

18

BACKHOE TO THE FUTURE CMME is in the UK to look at the story behind JCB’s global expansion.

24

BRINGING DOWN THE MET It’s dusty, its dirty, but the demolition of the Metropolitan Hotel is one of the most exciting developments in Dubai.

34 29

STANDING TALL Saudi Cranes is one of the most KSA’s most upwardly mobile.

34

LIFE ON THE OCEAN WAVES Adil Khalid on being the first Emarati in a global yacht race.

06 53

36

OLYMPIC DREAMS TO REALITY How an underdeveloped part of London has been transformed.

46

Raw power 43 NEW RELEASES ROUND-UP What’s hot in new machinery this month? Page 49 SECTOR ANALYSIS: FORKLIFTS Your guide to the latest in the forklift technology. Page 53 SPACE SHUTTLE LIFT-OFF How cranes were crucial in bring Space Shuttle Discovery to its final resting place. Page 56 FIND ME A DEALER: KUWAIT Guide to the dealers in the Kingdom of Kuwait.

Page 58 THE LAST WORD Crane tragedies remind us the region still has a long way to go in terms of safety.

Page

Editor’s Letter

PUBLISHER DOMINIC DE SOUSA GROUP COO NADEEM HOOD MANAGING DIRECTOR RICHARD JUDD EDITORIAL EDITOR STEPHEN WHITE stephen@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9110 DESIGN DIRECTOR RUTH SHEEHY ruth@cpidubai.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER GLENN ROXAS glenn@cpidubai.com

BIG IDEAS FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS can’t believe that we are already onto the ninth issue of CMME magazine with the release of our July edition. Time does really fly!

I

It is fair to say when we launched Construction Machinery Middle East at the end of 2011 that we were treated with a degree of scepticism. Why does the industry need another publication covering the heavy machinery market when there are plenty of others already doing it, we were asked?

However I hope that we have proved that not only does the market need it but it was long overdue.

I have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction to the magazine and I thank many of you for providing me with your feedback - both positive and negative! On a personal level it helps me to drive the publication to achieve bigger and better things.

Having celebrated the launch of our website in April, we are already seeing the effect of being able to publish dedicated content out into a community where it can be sometimes difficult to find information tailored specifically to our needs.

JUNIOR DESIGNER PERCIVAL MANALAYSAY CONTRIBUTORS DAVE REEDER, KAREN YOUNG ADVERTISING PUBLISHING DIRECTOR RAZ ISLAM raz@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9129 COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR MICHAEL STANSFIELD michael@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9128 CIRCULATION DATABASE AND CIRCULATION MANAGER RAJEESH M rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9147 PRODUCTION OPERATIONS DIRECTOR JAMES RAWLINS jamesr@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9108 PRODUCTION MANAGER JAMES P THARIAN james@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9146 DIGITAL www.constructionmachineryme.com DIGITAL SERVICES MANAGER TRISTAN TROY MAAGMA WEB DEVELOPERS JERUS KING BATION ERIK BRIONES JEFFERSON DE JOYA online@cpidubai.com +971 4 440 9100

I’ve been working hard over the last few months to get some exclusive visits and insights into the industry and we kick off this month with an exciting look at production at JCB’s HQ in the UK and an interview with Saudi Cranes in Saudi Arabia. Look out for some more exciting features and visits in CMME in the coming months.

PUBLISHED BY

However we also believe in strength in numbers at CMME and I can announce that we are now formally part of the Big Project family of magazines.

Branch Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE

Many of the changes won’t be obvious at first but it widens our audience even further plus it also means that we can now draw on that team’s vast experience of the general construction market while getting input from their global network of connections.

Of course, we will continue to bring you the very best in coverage of our unique industry but in the month where all eyes will be on the Olympics, I’ll paraphrase and promise that CMME will be going higher, better and further.

1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA

Tel: +971 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 4 447 2409 PRINTED BY Atlas Printing Press L.L.C. © Copyright 2012 CPI All rights reserved While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

See you on site.

ISSUE 9 JULY 2012

RENTAL PLAYER Saudi Cranes takes KSA renting to a new level

OCEAN RACER EXCLUSIVE Adil Khalid’s global journey

THE JCB STORY

OLYMPIAN HEIGHTS

Winning on the world stage

Stephen White, Editor, CMME

PUBLICATION LICENSED BY IMPZ

PLUS: ACROSS THE INDUSTRY

* NEWS & VIEWS * FORKLIFTS * DEMOLISHING THE MET * AND MORE

NOW ONLINE You can now catch the online edition every month at: www.constructionmachineryme.com

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News Round-Up

NEWS New machines, new offices, new projects, new initiatives – we look around the region at what’s new this month.

CAT POWERED BURJ In the event of an emergency or blackout that Caterpillar will provide emergency power for Burj Khalifa CEO Doug Oberhelman says.

“To be standing on the 144th floor of that building and to imagine one of our generator sets simply incredible.”

CHINESE COMPANIES NOTABLE ABSENTEES IN STRONG GLOBAL LINEUP FOR INTERMAT MIDDLE EAST

Intermat Middle East’s line-up looks set to have a strong international contingent when it returns in October – although Chinese participation could be down.

Event organisers Clarion Events Middle and Intermat veterans Comexposium have revealed that participants include Putzmeister, Liebherr, Terex Finlay, Sennebogen and LiuGong.

Intermat Middle East takes place between 8-10 October kicking off a busy end of year for shows in the UAE, with Big-5 following a month later in Dubai.

Comparisons

between the two will be inevitable and with that in mind, the organisers claim a survey of 150 top buyers showed 85% prefer Abu Dhabi as a location for an equipment show in the UAE. While not the final list – there are still four months to go before the event begins – the organisers said that the survey results “state emphatically that the strategic location” of INTERMAT Middle East is ideal for organisations and individuals in the construction and infrastructure industries to

Qatar: All infrastructure projects will be underway in 2012 All 220 infrastructure projects will be underway by the end of the year, officials at Ashghal have revealed. ollowing the announcement that infrastructure building in Qatar will be overseen by five project management firms, the public works authority said that it will look to Qatari contractors and companies to take the lead in construction.

Speaking at a recent event attended by 200 companies, Ashghal explained that the ambitious $9 billion programme will see each phase have specific criteria that “would determine the awarding of the framework agreement”.

The framework procedure will involve a procurement process that includes pre-qualification, submissions, evaluations and tendering.

Under the framework agreement, there will be an umbrella of agreements, that established general terms and conditions, schedule of rates, work orders and call off procedures, it was told One of the main norms for the selection process is the need for the successful bidders to be either a Qatari registered company or a joint

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venture of a firm with a Qatari company.

Qatari registered companies must have its commercial registration with at least two years of local experience in infrastructure construction works. Non-Qatari contractors are expected to have a joint venture in a 50:50 partnership with a registered Qatari company.

Those between QR200mn and QR900mn would

be awarded either to Qatari firms or non-Qatari joint ventures. Similarly, works over 900mn could also be awarded to Qatari firms or non-Qatari joint ventures, having local participation.

Construction of roads and drainage across the five designated sectors are to co-ordinated by chief project consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff.

According to the locations, the new projects would be classified as those falling in Qatar North, Qatar South, Doha North, Doha South and Doha West areas. The five project managers are Kathab & Alami/WSP, TBD, Hyder Consulting, Parson International and Atkins.

Qatar North will have 40 new projects, Qatar South 15, Doha North 68, Doha South 80, Doha West 18.

Ashghal said it has worked with Parsons Brinckerhoff to establish the local roads and drainage programme is integrated with the greater infrastructure plan of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and to maintain pace with development required for the FIFA 2020 World Cup.

COMPANY INTELLIGENCE JABAL OMAR DEVELOPMENT COMPANY (SAUDI ARABIA) which is building developing the Jabal Omar area including the construction of five-star hotels, residential towers, retail concourse and a car park,Development of Jabal Omar area involving construction of fivestar hotels, residential towers, retail concourse and a car park, has signed a $1.3-billion loan agreement with the group of local banks. The loan runs for 12-years, with a four-year grace period on repayments.

The GENERAL AUTHORITY OF CIVIL AVIATION - GACA (Saudi Arabia) has received bids from three consultancy firms for the independent engineering for Phase 1 of the Medina International Airport Expansion Project.

The bidders include: UK-based Halcrow, USbased Hill International and France’s ADPI. Turkey’s GAMA and Germany’s METKA are understood to be the front-runner to build a 500MW power plant at Samawa in Iraq.

Contracts to build Amawa and Dewaniya power plants are currently under tendering stage.

It is understood that around 10% of construction work on the FOUR SEASONS HOTEL RESORT PROJECT – Jumeirah Beach Road in Dubai, has been completed on this project. The resort comprises (237) guestrooms, including (49) suites, 270 metres of beachfront, three restaurants, function spaces, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts and a private beach club.

TENDER UPDATES Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works has issued a new tender for the design and build contract for the construction of 16-kilometre-long DOHA LINK BRIDGE. The project will link Shuwaikh to the port village of Doha in Jahra Region of Kuwait, also known as Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah Bridge (Contract No.RS/214). It will link up with the planned Subiya Causeway and have three traffic lanes and an emergency lane in each direction.

1

Qatar’s public works authority, ASHGHAL (Qatar), has released details of package 13 for the construction of 10-kilometre of four lane highway and THREE INTERCHANGES AS PART OF DOHA EXPRESSWAY. UAE’s Al-Jaber Group has been awarded the main contract on this scheme. Project completion is expected by the end of 2014.

2

Saudi Arabia’s SAUDI BINLADIN GROUP has been awarded the main contract on the Jebel Ali – Lehbab Road Rehabilitation Works Project. The contract is believed to be worth $20 million.

3

MAN ME revenue $1.28 billion in the last two years

SAUDIS WANT TO WORK AS CRANE OPERATORS Jamil Assafiri, deputy general manager, Saudi Cranes says that young people in the Kingdom view the construction industry as a viable industry to develop their careers.

Saudi Cranes is a crane rental company that operates across the Kingdom providing a rental fleet of Tadano, Liebherr, Kobelco and Grove Cranes. Investors in the company include HUTA and Saudi Cranes, it also has partnership with Kanoo Machinery.

While his crane service company’s fleet of 75 mobile cranes are busy serving the booming Saudi Market, he stresses that the government remains interested in helping its young people to

build their own futures via its Saudisation programme.

“If you are teaching a Saudi guy to become a crane operator the government will assist you and 50% of his salary,” he explained.

“This is attractive plan for some big companies. It’s less cost in terms of visas, salaries and flights.

You are investing in people and they are committed to you.

“Saudi guys want to know more. We have three, four in our offices, working in the mornings and studying in the evenings. They are really working hard.

They know now is the time for them to grow, get the experience and find a job.”

STEWART MACPHAIL IN TO RESCUE AILING MOHAMMAD AL MOJIL GROUP (MMG) One of Saudi’s biggest fleet owners, contractor Mohammad Al Mojil Group (MMG) has appointed turnaround specialist Stewart Macphail as acting CEO as it begins its restructuring programme.

CEO Ibrahim Zadeh resigned at the end of May after the company posted a $265 million loss in Q4 2011 and a fall in profits of 31% in Q1 2012. Macphail has been has been the managing partner for Middle East and North Africa

German bus and truck manufacturer MAN has taken $1.28 billion in revenue from the Middle East region over the past two years.

The company first opened its Middle East and Africa headquarters in Dubai in 2006 and over that time has sold 56,787 vehicles, including 50,756 trucks.

CEO Sales Region Middle East and Africa Markus Geyer said that 2011 was particularly strong for the company as sales saw a 27% increase as revenues increased from $732 million in 2010 to $865 million in 2011.

“For the last six years we have been providing our transportation solutions which combine efficiency, safety, comfort and environmental friendliness to our customers – private sector organizations and especially the public sector,” said Geyer. “In the aftermath of the economic slowdown during 2009-2011, our sales have steadily picked up growing by over 18% year-on-year in 2010 and nearly 27% in 2011.”

MAN Truck & Bus Middle East operates through an extensive network of 35 private capital dealers and importers in 14 countries, and the company is a major provider for public transportation solutions in the UAE, with more than 800 buses operating in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

at Consilia Partners. Previously, he served as the Group CEO at Riyadh-based Fawaz Alhokair Group with responsibility for the implementation and the day-to-day operational and strategic running of the retailer.

MMG brought in accountancy house PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a financial advisor following the resignation of Zadeh to handle an internal review of the operation to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

MMG’s equipment services unit manages and maintains a fleet of approximately 5,057 units of cranes, earth movers,

air compressors forklifts, pumps, trailer tractors, blasting machines and other construction related equipment throughout the Kingdom.

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News Round-Up

DIGGER DIPLOMAS

JCB is in talks with the UK government about starting up its own line in qualifications that could secure teenagers a job interview with the company.

AL-JABER GROUP’S CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT TRACKING SPECIALISTS LINK UP WITH US FIRM Al-Jaber Group’s Trakker Middle East (TME) and US company Global Track are launching a range of container tracking devices for cargo shipments.

The UAE-based TME is a specialist in monitoring vehicles, busses, trucks and construction equipment and claims to have the largest market share in the Middle East.

Together with Global Track, it will now launch global tracking systems for containers.

“TME is a pioneer in tracking systems in the middle east, using satellite technology GPS & GPRS , we have long experience in monitoring vehicles, busses, trucks and construction equipments , where we built good reputation which allowed us to capture the biggest share of market in our region,” said TME’s general manager Naim Abdel Hadi.

“This agreement comes according to our policy on the way of privilege to select our partners carefully to provide excellent service to our clients within

UAE, and Global Track comes in first place in the field container tracking system. Where its products are made of high quality components, and accredited by the Pentagon.”

Naim added that after September 11th, the world has become more increasingly aware of the importance security technology “to secure and protect people as well as assets and investments.”

With the acceleration of international trade, there is a need for tracking system which help in monitoring containers and cargo shipments by using modern techniques, especially via satellite, he said.

Such systems help to minimise the theft, illegal trade and losses, he said, “where these sophisticated devices can also monitor the weather’s condition and control temperature and humidity inside the container, which helps to goods to reach destination in good condition.”

MASCO BUYS 162 VOLVO MACHINES FOR HARAMAIN HIGH SPEED RAILWAY Saudi contractor MASCO (Mohammed Al Swailem Co) has purchased 162 Volvo excavators for work on the Haramain High Speed Rail project.

Already labelled the Western Railway, the $11 billion Haramain High Speed Rail project is a

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450km inter-city railway that will link Jeddah to Mecca and Medina.

According to Al-Rehab, the Volvo dealer recently acquired by FAMCO, MASCO purchased 100 EC210BLC excavators in 2011 and has followed that up with another 62

in 2012.

According to local media reports in the Kingdom, Phase 2 of the project, which includes installation of signalling and maintenance equipment, is due to begin shortly on the 12year project.

Rashid Hospital Tunnel 75% complete One of Dubai’s biggest traffic obstacles, the roadworks on the Rashid Hospital Tunnel, are on course to be completed

by June 2013.

According to Mattar Al Tayer, executive director of the RTA, the $200 million project will increase vehicle capacity to 6,000 vehicles per hour when complete.

RESCUE BID Rescuers in Ontario, Canada turned to heavy equipment for a controlled demolition after a shopping mall roof collapsed in Elliot Lake, trapping a dozen shoppers inside.

“The Rashid Hospital Tunnels is being constructed as part of an integrated project through which the RTA is seeking to reduce traffic congestions in the vicinity of Rashid Hospital, and raise the traffic flow in the area,” said Al Tayer.

The project contractor has finalised all infrastructure works

related to Dewa, sewage system, and Etisalat, he added.

“Construction works have also been completed in vehicles and pedestrians underpass, whereas completion rate has almost clocked 70 per cent in storm-water drainage works, more than 95 per cent in tunnel electromechanical works, and almost 60 per cent in road works, light signals and street lighting,” said Al Tayer.

“Over the next few weeks, the RTA will open the surface roads linking with Al Riyadh Street and Oud Maitha Street, and the step is poised to streamline the traffic flow and ease vehicular congestion in the area between Al Riyadh and Oud Maitha Streets.”

News Round-Up

TEREX MOVES CRANE PRODUCTION OUT OF ITALY Terex Cranes has announced that it is relocating the manufacture of self-erecting tower cranes from its manufacturing plant in Italy to Montceau Les Mines, France.

Terex said that this will affect its full range of self-erecting tower cranes, which includes 12 models ranging from 1 to 6 tonnes maximum capacity and 16 to 45 meters jib length.

Effective as of July, the upcoming production transfer will provide for the creation of 150 new jobs in France, says Terex.

“We started to find that we lacked sufficient space to cater to the demand for our self-erecting tower crane products at our Italian facility,” said Steve Filipov, president developing markets, Terex Corp. “We see the move to Montceau-les-Mines as a good opportunity to continue our strategy of improving our production capabilities and finding synergies with our existing production facilities.”

The Montceau Les Mines facility currently builds Terex AC 40, AC 60, TC 40, TC 60, Roadmaster 5300 road mobile crane, and Terex reach stacker product lines.

“Our facility in Montceau-les-Mines has an excellent track record for its manufacturing quality,” said Filipov. “It’s an ambitious challenge that we now feel ready to take on. We expect the reduction of transport costs, based on the geographically central location of our French plant, to have a positive impact for our customers.”

In other news Terex has completed the purchase Italian luffing jib tower crane manufacturer Recom after buying out the 33% of remaining shares in the company. Recom was previously owned by Ferruccio Moritsch, who also had his Comedil tower cranes company bought by Terex in 1999.

VOLVO TRIALS NO DRIVER TRUCK AND CAR TECHNOLOGY ON SPANISH HIGHWAYS

RAK RING ROAD GO The UAE has awarded contracts totaling $120 million for road construction in the Emirate.

First the wheels came off the Spanish economy and now hands have come off steering wheels of Volvo trucks and cars on its highways in Volvo’s successful trial of self-drive technology.

The Swedish vehicle and machinery maker said that a convoy of trucks and cars tested its Safe Road Trains for the Environment (SARTRE) technology over a course of 200 km on a Spanish highway near Barcelona in May. Negotiating traffic and traveling at 120 kph the vehicle formed a convoy behind a lead FH truck driven by a professional driver. Volvo explained that the vehicles in the road train were equipped with safety systems including cameras, radar and laser sensors, enabling them to monitor

the lead vehicle and other vehicles on the road. Using a WiFi system developed by Ricardo UK, the vehicles accelerated, braked and turned in exactly the same way as the leader.

According to Volvo benefits of the system improves traffic safety, reduces environmental impact and cuts the risk of traffic tailbacks. It estimates that fuel savings due to slip streaming also cuts fuel consumption by 20%.

Volvo project leader Linda Wahlstrom was filmed as part of the convoy and said that she found time to sit back and do some light reading as the car continued to drive itself.

“It is quite funny to see the passing vehicles,” she said. “They are quite surprised seeing me not driving the car but reading a magazine.”

BAD TRUCK DRIVERS FACE DEPORTATION IN SAUDI ARABIA Reckless non-Saudi drivers will be deported from the Kingdom if they repeatedly commit traffic offences.

Under new laws being introduced, drivers that receive 18 points three times on their licenses during their stay in the Kingdom will have their residency visas cancelled and face deportation.

According to Arabic newspaper Al Madina, the new laws will soon be introduced with

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the Kingdom hoping to encourage positive driving by dropping all previous penalty points if a driver spends one year without any offence.

Everybody with a valid Saudi driving licence

will be credited with two points for safe driving if he has no offence during one Hijri year.

Saudi Drivers who reach 24 points in one Hirji year will also face driving bans up to a year.

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News Analysis

Auction houses step up It’s a sellers market as the region becomes a hot-bed of auction activity. ubai’s traditional machinery auction rivals once again go head to head this month with their pre-Ramadan sales, but their domination of the market is coming to an end.

On 7 July, WWA will open its three-day auction in Jebel Ali South. The list of equipment shows how useful these auctions have become at getting rid of unwanted plant and fleet in the region. The listed lots include 162 gen-sets, 40 tractor trucks, 31 light towers, 28 telescopic handlers (mostly JCBs) and two jet skis.

A week later and across the Sheikh Zayed Road, bidding will be open for Ritchie Bros’ own July sale which takes place a few days later on 17 July at its huge facility near the docks of Jebel Ali Port.

For years the two auction houses have locked horns in Dubai. Ritchie - the world’s biggest auction house and a listed company on the Nasdaq exchange - has an impressive set-up in Dubai; a huge yard and auction hall facility where bidders can view machines as they are paraded in front of them.

Conversely WWA has slowly upgraded its site in Jebel Ali South and like Ritchie holds unreserved auctions globally in locations such as: Amsterdam, Australia, Qatar, Guangzhou, Jakarta, Perth, Philippines, Lebanon, India and the USA. It has more than held its own against formidable opposition.

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According to the company, “WWA has sold at auction over 77,000 items construction equipment at its 90 auctions in Dubai from March 2001 through May 2012, for a total amount of over $1,119 million in auction value. WWA has controlled a market share of 40% to 65% of all industrial equipment auction sales concluded in Dubai in 2005 through 2010.”

Since 2010 Ritchie has stepped up a gear, recording a record sale in March 2011 which saw it hit a scorching high of $57 million. In that sale, $15.7 million was spent on 20 late model Cat 777D rock trucks alone. While some were distributed back into the UAE, buyers from Germany and current auction darling Australia also dipped in to pick up the quarry workhorses.

Auction sales in the region are now truely international affairs. The end of the boom in Dubai, plus a continual stream of older equipment reaching the end of its usefullness, has seen many machines being sold outwards to South America, Africa and Australia. It’s a region where unreserved auctions have succeeded in tapping into buyers looking for a bargain, benefitting both WWA and Ritchie.

However the global auction scene has become a highly competitive marketplace, and the Middle East is percieved as still holding a lot of potential for lesser known (regionally) names such as Euro Auctions and Iron Planet. The new names bring a different flavour to the arena.

According to EC Harris, project managers are often too partial to their client’s demands.

BIASED PROJECT MANAGERS BLAMED FOR DISPUTES Failure to administer construction contracts properly and employer-biased project managers were major contributors as the value of contract disputes doubled in the Middle East last year, according to a new report by EC Harris.

In its Global Construction Disputes report, EC Harris revealed that the average value of disputes doubled from $56.25 million in 2010 to $112.5 million in 2011.

The region is now almost three times higher than the global average which fell from $35.1 million to $32.2 million on the back of increasing emphasis by both the public and private sector owners to avoid and mitigate disputes through risk management and early, field level, resolution of disputes.

Researchers at EC Harris’ Contract Solutions team said that a failure to properly administer the contract was the most common cause of a construction dispute in the Middle East.

EC Harris identified the performance of project managers or engineers as a crucial contributor to the causes of contracts entering into a dispute.

The most likely problem with the project manager or engineer was that they were too partial to the employer’s interests, followed by a lack of understanding of the procedural aspects of the contract, said EC Harris.

“Their conduct often being at the heart of how the dispute crystallised,’ said the analyst. “The most likely problem with the project manager or engineer was that they were too partial to the employer’s interests, followed by a lack of understanding of the procedural aspects of the contract.”

Settling disputes most commonly involved taking the case to arbitration before entering party to party negotiation and adjudication.

According to David Dale, the Middle East bucked global trends as companies sought to resolve disputes as the region recovered its confidence in an improving economic climate.

“The Middle East saw a flood of major disputes last year,” said Dale “Over the past few years we have seen a reluctance to settle in the Gulf region, but this has been replaced by a stronger desire to do business and resolve disputes as the economies strengthen. On the whole, however, disputes are still costing the industry time and money. Focusing on avoiding the dispute from the outset through better mitigation and contract design is always the better option.”

Euro Auctions may not have a physical auction yard in the Middle East but has staging points dotted globally. It has become a useful route for those with machines that will tempt booming markets.

“Where last year the trend was to ‘hang on’ to equipment until the price changed, that time has now,” general manager Jonnie Keys wrote in last month’s CMME. “Heavy equipment is now moving to where it is needed most - Australia.”

As ever, things move on in the auction arena, and when CMME talked to Euro Auctions’ spokesman Barry Walker last month, he suggested that while Australia is still bouyant, Brazil looks set to become the next stop for a lot of ageing Middle Eastern equipment.

The web-focused Iron Planet arrived in the region in 2010, promising to offer a genuine alternative to those willing to use the internet for their purchasing and selling requirement.

While Ritchie and WWA both have online auction capabilities, Iron Planet’s reserved price model also swaps yards for inspectors acting as avatars for bidders making sure that the machine doesn’t have to be sold as seen (called IronClad Assurance).

The auctioneer is being highly progressive with its approach to selling used equipment in other areas too.

In 2010 it entered into a partnership with ERC Asset Solutions which sees the two will offer the

option of an online auction to companies looking to release liquidity from construction and agricultural equipment.

It has been highly pro-active in the Middle East too. The first stage of its launch was a high profile marketing campaign, but a second, almost under the radar stage has seen it partner with Q-Fab in Qatar. As CMME reported in its May issue the pair have been busy selling used cranes and equipment out of the country, with Africa a particularly popular destination.

With used machinery still in ample supply and needed globally and in the region, the UAE continues to empty its reserve of used equipment.

May saw the start of JLL Auctions, a joint venture between local firm Al Nowais Group and property giant John Lang LaSalle, sales in Abu Dhabi. Its long-term plan is to hold up to 15 auctions per year that cover plant and machinery sales over a broad range of industrial sectors. Focussed on the Abu Dhabi region, it seems in contrast to the global-scale business that auctions have become.

Consequently the Middle East finds itself in a state of almost perfect equillibrium with both sellers and buyers set to benefit. The downturn may have left many countries scarred but for those bundled with an excess of assets and equipment it is has never been easier to find a buyer. The shame being it may not go for the right price.

CONSTRUCTION

September 2011 July 2012

CONSTRUCTION MIDDLE EAST MIDDLE EAST

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Expert Opinion

Be bold and find growth As part of a new series, Paul Floyd, managing director, FAMCO, looks at how growth can be achieved in the post-downturn climate.

PAUL FLOYD MANAGING DIRECTOR FAMCO

“IF YOU HAVE

A PASSION FOR THIS BUSINESS YOU CAN ALWAYS SUCCEED.”

hen Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008, few people in the Gulf were thinking that it would affect them.

When you are surfing a wave, like we were, it can be very difficult to believe, or want to believe that it has come to an end.

The global downturn was especially hard on construction. From 2005 to 2008, FAMCO had tripled in size in three years. However, this was all UAE-based and clearly not sustainable in what was quickly becoming a crisis.

One of the reasons we are now in a position to grow is that we dealt with the crisis very early. We faced up to it and very quickly switched our mindset from being in a boom to how do we deal with being in a crisis?

The most important element of that was the focus on cash. There was not a company in the Gulf at that time, geared up for growth, that didn’t have levels of inventory and receivables that had suddenly become excessive.

However as our competitors were also in the same situation, I knew if we managed the crisis better, then we would come out of it faster, and in better shape than them. We made some difficult decisions in terms of FAMCO’s structure, we shed some costs, but we didn’t panic either. It wasn’t a case of slashing heads to cut, we opted for trimming rather than major surgery.

A lot of our workforce is employed in service and parts – the kingpin of our operation and customer service levels. Relative to the equipment sales it held up pretty well as companies still needed to

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keep their machines and vehicles running. There were less machines in operation but, unlike sales of heavy trucks and machinery which fell globally 65% in one quarter, the aftermarket did not go off the edge of a cliff.

We also decided that we must never lose sight of our customers.

So by focusing on the cash element, the flow of money coming into the company, and fixing it we knew that we would be OK. Knowing that the Dubai market was unlikely to be the same post-crisis, the other crucial element was growth and that was always on our radar.

In fact, the crisis polarised our thinking. A new strategy was required and some of our plans were accelerated to widen the business across a much larger geography.

In terms of that growth we took on a twin strategy. We knew in some markets, like Oman and Qatar, we could start up something new.

In others, if we wanted to be a serious player we could only do it by acquisition. For us to start up in Saudi Arabia would take us years to do. Realising that led us to acquire Al-Rehab at the end of 2011.

The natural approach is to go to your neighbouring country first and build a presence step by step, and we did that in Oman and Qatar. But if you really want to make a statement you need to be bold. So we did both.

The management requirements for both strategies are very different.

Any manager that has done a startup will tell you it’s probably the most difficult thing you can do.

Every single detail has to be covered from point zero – everything from registering the company, finding the premises, hiring people to buying a kettle. It can be more difficult to start a company with ten people than to run one with 200.

To fill those positions we recruited locally but we also exported some of our management team as your own people in new markets understand your philosophy and the way you do business.

The two countries have allowed us to learn and cut our teeth.

In the case of Saudi Arabia and Al-Rehab, we have a good company that certainly isn’t broken but if we don’t inject some of our direction into the business then it won’t grow to its full potential. It’s a question of prioritising the changes you want to make and very importantly getting buy-in from the senior management.

This is a process of integration – into the FAMCO way of doing business.

We’ve gone in trying to get ahead of the curve in Saudi Arabia. We want to double market share in KSA within three years and become the number one in customer service with a much expanded network. Simple, but how do you do it?

We have to put in place the right structure that allows us to grow and will not restrict us. Everyone has to share the vision with you. They need to be able to realise the growth potential and understand our wanted position and we need to be operating in a certain way.

Once you’ve demonstrated that you are going to invest, it can only be a good thing for those already there. We’re six months in and we can already see that we are making great progress. Any move to Saudi for a distributor has to be a big investment as it has to be conducted on a certain scale and I’m sure that deterred some other companies. Either you have the appetite for that investment or you’re better off staying out.

The past few years have taught us that the construction industry in the region has to think in terms of sustainable growth.

It is no good approaching these markets with a gold rush mentality and strong leadership is required for a clear strategy and direction.

Everyone should be encouraged to have a voice, and communication must cascade through the company.

If you have a passion for this business you can always succeed.

Expert Opinion is a new series from FAMCO (Al-Futtaim Auto & Machinery Company) that will highlight major issues affecting the heavy equipment industry.

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Special Report

BACKHOE TO THE FUTURE CMME visits JCB’s headquarters to get a sense of its history and where it is heading.

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e were sitting in the office the other day,” says a fellow passenger. “And we were wondering what industry does the UK have? You don’t own your cars anymore, planes, or anything. I mean, we just couldn’t think of anything.”

Fast forward three weeks and I’m sitting in another car, it’s German, but we’re on our way to one of the few companies that is undeniably a British “industry” success. JCB. The headquarters for JCB are located in leafy Staffordshire. Once upon a time it was an area known for its pottery, today it’s the home of Alton Towers, the UK’s biggest theme park, and the production of JCB’s backhoes as well as its administrative and marketing hub.

In keeping with the theme park, erm, theme, JCB has also opened up its own attraction, the JCB Story, a tour as the name suggests through its history.

Filled with lovingly restored machinery and a treasure trove of memrobilia, it takes visitors from a recreation of founder Joe Bamford’s first garage, its early tractors and backhoes, right through to JCB’s sterling global growth.

“Welcome to the JCB Story,” proclaims JCB’s Nigel Chell as we enter the museum-cum-showroom.

“There was a family called Bamford that started a business in 1874. Before that they were the town’s blacksmiths,” he begins. “Eventually this business came full circle in the 1980s when JCB bought their sites. They went out of business because they didn’t keep up with trends in farming mechanisation.”

The circle he refers to began when Joseph Cyril Bamford joined the family business in the 1930s.

Precocious Joe was later fired by his uncle: “And hence he set up JCB,” Chell chuckles.

A recreation of Joe Bamford’s first workshop, a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter, is the first major stop on our tour. It’s built to scale says Chell, and easily dwarfed by the room, let alone the production plant that is tucked underneath us.

From there Bamford moved the business from Uttoxeter to some stables at a hall near to its modern headquarters. Chell shows me a black and white picture of Joe and his family taken at the stables.

“I found this photograph after Joe died, next to him is Mrs Bamford, the baby in her arms is Sir Anthony (Joe’s son, now the 66-year-old chairman of the company),” he says.

One of things that grabs you when you look at the picture are three words scrolled over the building.

“She (Mrs Bamford) had it in her collection and I

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Special Report

Oil boosts JCB in Oman The onshore oil and gas industry in Oman is helping JCB’s dealer Muscat Overseas Equipment to grab market share in the Sultanate.

The Muscat dealership says that it is “riding high” with increased orders for equipment used on onshore oilfirends. The dealer has recently opened three new brances at Salahah, Sohar and Niswa. General manager Bala Chatoth says the company is adapting its operation to meet demand.

“DEVELOPED ON ONE SIDE AND MANUFACTURED THE OTHER. IT’S A WINDOW ON THE BUSINESS.” loved it,” says Chell. “The sign is written in paint J C Bamford. It really shows the roots of the company.”

Among other photos of JCB’s early years is one of its first employees Bill Hearst.

“He was an apprentice at JCB aged 14 and he’s still living – about 78 I think – he did about 50 years of service with the company.”

Spending time with those that work at JCB you get the impression that they feel like they belong there.

A cynical journalist will always view this with suspicion but rarely have I met a company with so many people contented to measure their time in decades and not years.

Hearst it would appear was the first of many.

While happy people make for warm hearts and good PR, it is with the machines that JCB has been built. Having left the recreation of Bamford’s old workshop we start to see the progression of the machine design through the decades. One of the

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“We sell a complete range of equipment including skid steers, backhoe loaders and excavators,” Bala comments. “We have recently opened branches in enditioned event space Salahah, Sohar and Niswa, which

is close to an oilfield where development projects are underway.

JCB machines are in great demand wherever onshore drilling sites are opened and rigs are installed.

Muscat Overseas has also invested in the launch of mobile service teams and a new stock yard which complement its training centre at its Muscat headquarters.

Former Al-Futtaim executive Bala says the company has improved its headcount and is on the look out for local talent.

“We now have 170 employees. We aim to boost our heavy line market share and we have an ambition to ensure that more Omanis work for the company as opposed to expatriates,” explains Bala.

first machines is a tractor with a single loader arm, “We still use it today with the skid steers we manufacture,” Chell reflects.

More than any other, it is the backhoe which is JCB’s signature machine. The machine in the museum looks like it could still do a job.

“That’s the Mark 1 backhoe that was built in 1953,” he says.

Pointing to another early backhoe, Chell points out a machine was restored by some volunteers at the company.

Looking like an adapted tractor it dates from a time before JCB was still to settle into its familiar orange, the lick of paint added by the restorers gives it a stunning look.

“I love the colour scheme,” says Chell. “The red and the yellow probably wouldn’t work today. You associate it with that era.”

As we move through the machines grow much more familiar, although some, including an angular -looking cab, are very much products of the time.

“I presume it was to add visibility with the backhoe, helping to drain off rain,” he says. “Even then they were thinking about visibility.”

One impressive display is a cabinet of hundreds of toy versions of JCB machines which Chell says has been collated from its own archives and an ‘enthusiast on the backhoe line’. It’s a great way to see how lines of machines have been developed over time.

As well showing its machines, JCB also makes a point of displaying its line of aircraft dating back to the 1960s.

“It was a big part of us being able to grow our markets,” he says, “Being able to fly in and out of Europe within a day was a huge advantage at the time.”

Special Report

Like the company, the JCB Story steps up its scope after Joe Bamford retires in 1975.

“We move from where Joe Bamford is building the brands and working on product development, he then hands over to his son, Anthony. Up to that point it had all been about punching above our weight, really,” says Chell.

Part of the tour is set in what was the old design studio. Fascinatingly Joe Bamford made sure that his office was alongside (you can imagine the lifelong engineer unerving designers as he peered over their drafts on his way to his office). The office is of its time wooden recesses, sturdy furniture, but most spectacularly it looks directly down onto the factory floor.

“This was Joe’s office originally,” Chell remarks.

“Machines were being developed one side and being manufactured on the other. It was a complete window on the business.”

Under Sir Anthony, JCB has undergone a huge global expansion programme and now has 72 factories worldwide. A display gives an overview of its now global presence highlighting its major successes, including in India.

“It’s phenomenal,” he comments. “We’ve been there since 1979 and I think even Sir Anthony would say it was more by accident rather than by design that we’ve been so successful.”

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The timing may have been fortuitous, but JCB has greatly benefited from its exciting chapter in the sub-continent.

“The Cat president was in the Financial Times last year and he said that JCB had whipped their asses in India,” he laughs.

While it is undoubtedly a corner-stone to its current standing as the top 12 construction company in the world, India is not the only country in which it is currently enjoying success. Like many others, the company is fixated by the potential of the Brazilian market.

“We are about to open a new excavator and backhoe factory near Sao Paulo in July for the South American market,” he explaines. “That market used to be so unstable, but it is stable enough to do direct business now.”

He continues: “And you have to manufacture otherwise you have to pay punative prices to import.

There is a lot happening there.”

Its progress in the skid steer field has seen it grow a steady income out of the US market (where unlike in the UK, a backhoe is a backhoe not a JCB): “We are dedicated to skid steers on a highly engineered excavator. There is still a huge opportunity there.”

We’re nearing the end of our tour around JCB’s history and its future.

“The reaction to the tour is normally pretty special,” says Chell. “It does open the eyes of customers that may not yet be with us. As an employee it makes you proud to see where the company has come from.

Hopefully that rubs off on the people that go round too.”

Unlike its European peers such as Germany and France, the UK failed to hold onto many of its industries in the post-war period. JCB however has bucked the trend and gone on to be one of the UK’s largest privately owned companies and one of the most recognisable brands in construction machinery.

But why was that? How did it succeed where others failed?

Having spent an afternoon with the company, getting a sense of the history, the pride in its workers, and the honed production, you get the impression that it’s never lost sight of where it’s come from. You also get the impression that it sure as heck knows where it’s going.

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Market Analysis

BRINGING DOWN THE MET CMME scours through the rubble of the Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai and discovers what will take its place.

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veryone who goes there has a story about how they remember Dubai when they first saw it. Long term residents will recall how the Hard Rock Cafe, which is now an empty shell dwarfed by the towers of the Marina and Jumeirah Lake Towers developments, stood alone on the road to Abu Dhabi before the rest of the city caught up with it.

Those that go further back will remember the World Trade Centre Building being one of the few tall buildings away from the city’s heart on the Creek.

Then there are those that remember the Metropolitan Hotel opening an outpost for expats and locals and bringing glamour to a lonely deserted part of the city.

After that opening in 1968, the Met soon became an institution and its walls the sounding board for the thousands of small stories that form much of Dubai’s early modern history.

Even the names of its drinking holes, the Rattle Snake and The Red Lion, called back to an earlier time before Dubai went up-market and global with boutique

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bars and multiple-starred Michelin restaurants.

Despite the downturn of recent years, Dubai has retained its appeal as a tourist and business destination, and in an ever-competitive market the venerable hotel has not been able to convert a new generation of punters.

Shielded by the Metro on the Sheikh Zayed Road and lost in the steel and glass landscape of downtown Dubai, the Met had become a dusty relic, long before owners Habtoor Group decided that it was closing time on the hotel earlier this year.

By May demolition work on the hotel had begun in earnest.

“Parting with the Metropolitan Hotel, our first hospitality venture, is not easy as it is filled with great memories, but I always believe in looking forward,” Khalaf Al Habtoor, chairman of Al Habtoor Group, told reporters in January. “The tourism industry in the UAE and Dubai is constantly and steadily growing and we have to be prepared to cater for the growing need of its visitors and residents alike.”

Habtoor have big plans for the old hang-out. In place of the Metropolitan hotel will come three hotels which between them will hold 1,616 rooms, have 50,000 square feet of banqueting and meeting space, a 1,000-seat broadway-style theatre which comes complete with water fountains and a moving stage, a 400,000 square foot landscaped garden, and a sports academy with 12 tennis courts.

Replacing one hotel with three modern venues makes financial sense to Habtoor, but despite an army of machines swarming over its remnants, when CMME visits the site it becomes immediately obvious that the old lady is not prepared to go quietly.

The project site is a noisy, dusty tangle with machines nibbling away at the carcass of what used to be the Met. A lot of it has been flattened, but much remains. Actually ‘remains’ is a good word for it.

Looking up from the floor of the site, there’s a massive escarpment of concrete and an excavator busy below its overhanging roof. It looks like something big took a bite out of it.

“That used to be the cinema,” points out project manager Martyn Wild. “It’s 378m by 120m. When we re-open we’ll be able to have a theatre for events like Cirque De Soleil [more on that later].”

The noise of the crew of excavators makes it difficult for us to hear each other and it highlights one of the big challenges of the site, accomodating the residents that still live in the grounds.

In fact the residential buildings currently separate two parts of the site and throughout the four years it will take to build, the company will have to be careful not to cause major disruption to those that are still providing income.

“We built a separate access road for them,” he explains. “There’s a couple of hundred apartments, all let.”

Returning to look at two buildings at the far end of the site, he points to one of them that is still being used as accomodation.

“The distance between the two is about 15m, how are we going to knock it down?” he asks.

It looks close enough to bring both down should somebody get a little over excited in the cabin.

“They’ll form a ramp with the rubble,” he explains.

“So that a digger can get high enough. Then they drop a weight over it to about half-way across using a crane.

“Once they get that far they use the ramp and the long arm diggers pull it down so they can pull it

“A LOT OF THE DOORS AND WINDOWS HAVE

ENDED UP IN AFGHANISTAN. AN ESCALATOR IS GOING TO GO INTO ANOTHER BUILDING.”

towards them, bit-by-bit. The concrete frame and the slabs have to be broken down as well, bit-by-bit.”

As we climb over the rubble of what used to be the Met he reveals that the demolition is 75% done having begun April 29, starting with the Rattle Snake. A crew of excavators is scratching at the rubble, clearing waste away.

That waste is then separated, so that the steel and metal of the building can be recycled. Much of the hotel’s fixtures and fittings, he explains, have already been recycled elsewhere in the world.

“A lot of the doors and windows have ended up in Afghanistan. We even took out an escalator which is going to go into another building.

“The guys that do the demolition can make money out of it. They knock it down, shatter it and then a guy breaks it up.”

As we walk, Wild runs through the mental images of what used to be standing in the dust.

“Here is where the Rattle Snake was, some shops here, and other single storey stuff.”

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Market Analysis

We continue on and up onto a ridge of inexplicable concrete. Once it could have been a lobby or a restaurant, now it is looks like a deconstructed lunar landing site. While it is one development, the work is being split across two sites.

Wild explains the differences.

“One half, the demolition site, is being done by Al Rashid, who are knocking down. And the other half is HLG (Habtoor Leighton Group),” he says.

We drive-by the section that HLG is working on. It used to be a car park but eventually it will house one of the hotels. For the moment piling equipment is in tearing it into shape.

“They started with the piling and now they are driving shoring piles into the ground,” he explains.

“We’ve got three basements, so they are going down about 18m. Up until Saturday that had 108 continuous piles in.”

During our tour, he says that there are two piling machines in operation and another will soon be working. As the piling is completed, cranes are used to drop the casings in. Earth is removed by truck to a dumping site.

He adds: “they’ll strip it, and once they get a certain amount of the shoring done then they can start excavating.”

The excavation will drop the level of the area by 2m across the site before dewatering can begin. That work should be completed by early July. “We need to get that in before they can go any deeper.”

He continues: “The digging will be the real show.

The whole site, going down 18m, is going to need an army of trucks to keep it clear.”

According to Wild, the development on the Met site is the biggest site on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

“The construction will take place on the old site of the hotel, turning it into three hotels, a St Regis

“THE DIGGING WILL BE THE REAL SHOW. THE

WHOLE SITE, GOING DOWN 18M, IS GOING TO NEED AN ARMY OF TRUCKS TO KEEP IT CLEAR.” CONSTRUCTION

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which will overlook the gardens, a W hotel and a Westin Hotel. At 1,600 keys it will be bigger than the Atlantis.”

He adds: “Then we’ve got the 1,000 seat Dragone theatre. It will be like Cirque D’Soleil but with water.

It’s outrageous. Google it – it looks amazing.”

As owner and developer, Wild says Habtoor has taken a different approach to the project.

“Usually it is a very inefficient process in the case of hotels because somewhere down the line you are negotiating with an operator who may not like the design. They re-design it and then pass it on to a contractor who will have their own ideas and redesign it again.

“We’ve got the operator, consultant and contrator (sister company HLG) on board at the design stage.

Instead of designing it three times we’re doing it once.

“We’ve closed a revenue generating hotel so we want it done as efficiently as possible. It’s also a buyer’s market and we’ve got some good deals. It may be risky but it is possible to price a concept design as along as you know what you’re doing.”

The three hotels are not the only projects on the go for Habtoor, the Waldorf Astoria on the Dubai Palm is back up and running after the foundations were filled back in after the downturn hit Dubai.

“We’ve brought Hilton in and have redesigned it.

That hotel is on ground level now and is 18 months away.”

Looking over the demolition, it is easy to presume that the past is being knocked down and ridden over but Wild says that Habtoor is keen to preserve some of the old Met magic.

He reveals that a trump card to the resort will be the return of some old favourites.

“We’re taking six or seven outlets from the old hotel,” he says. “The Red Lion, the Rattle Snake, Corleone’s will all be transposed.

“We’ve even saved the bar for the Red Lion and a lot of other stuff. It’s gnarled and marked, it’s been around for 30 years and it looks like it. Perfect! We must have it in the new hotel,” he says. “It’s a good job as it’s a good bar.”

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Interview

audi Crane’s Jamil Assafiri says the Saudi market has reached the point where the pie is big enough for everyone in heavy machinery supply to get a slice.

Saudi Cranes is a relatively young crane rental company having started in 2007, but it has made solid progress in that time, deliberately scaling up its fleet without over-stretching itself. As part of its service it provides operators for jobs ensuring that it straddles the divide between supplier and sub-contractor on an array of projects.

“As a crane rental company we come under the Saudi Bin Laden Group. Relative to our age I think we are doing very well,” he explains. “The strength of the Saudi market is that in can absorb different sized companies with different levels of qualifications: the most and... the least professional.”

According to Assafiri, the big projects in the Kingdom and their geographical spread make it a particularly exciting market.

“It can absorb all kinds of expertise,” he enthuses.

“In whatever industry you are in you can find the right job. Whether you are in timber, steel, sand, cement, soil, compaction, industry, rental, selling you will find a need for machines on all levels.”

Saudi Cranes operates across the Kingdom providing a rental fleet of Tadano, Liebherr, Kobelco and Grove Cranes. Investors in the company include HUTA and Saudi Cranes, it also has partnership with Kanoo Machinery, which acts as its supplier and service provider.

It currently has a fleet of 75 cranes and with the market hungry for cranes, Saudi Cranes has continued to expand. The last 12 months has seen the Jeddah-based company purchase 17 brand new cranes from various manufacturers, including Grove, Liebherr and Kobelco kit.

Ten of those machines, says Assafiri, are Grove rough terrain cranes with the company preferring the RT 765 E, which he explains was picked with the operator in mind.

“This 65 UST capacity RT crane shares the MEGAFORM boom found on GMK cranes, but adds the synchronised telescoping boom found on Grove RT cranes,” he says. “Four wheel multi-mode steering and the full vision cab optimise mobility and operator confidence on the jobsite.”

Complementing the RT, the company has taken two HS 895 HD, 200t Liebherr machines. The duty cycle crawler cranes (HS series) are specially designed for all kind of material handling jobs, he says.

S

STANDING TALL CMME looks at the success story of Saudi Cranes, one of the Kingdom’s up and comers in the rental crane market.

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Dammam P.O. Box 37, Dammam 31411 Phone: 03 857 1265 / Fax: 03 857 7139 E-mail: mddsales@kanoosa.com

Jeddah P.O. Box 812, Jeddah 21421 Phone: 02 263 6171 / Fax: : 02 263 2979 E-mail: mdjsales@jed.kanoosa.com

Jubail P.O. Box 122 Jubail 31951 Phone: 03 3625087 / Fax: 03 3625519 Email: Machineryjub@kanoosa.com

Yanbu P.O. Box Number 88 Yanbu Al Sinaiyah Phone: 04 3257881 / 7882 / Fax: 04 3257883 Email: mdyprsup@jed.kanoosa.com

Riyadh P.O. Box 753, Riyadh 1421 Phone: 01 491 4624 / Fax: 01 491 4404 E-mail: mdrsales@ruh.kanoosa.comv

Bahrain Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo WLL P.O. Box 45, Manama KSA Phone: +973 17738200 / Fax: +973 17732828 E-mail: ajit.s.nair@ybakanoo.net

www.kanoo.com

Interview

Saudi Cranes has grown quickly in the booming market, but as a rental operation has been careful not to over-stretch itself. It has also taken the bold step over enpowering it operators. They decide if a lift could be too risky.

For a rental company like Saudi Cranes, the Liebherr’s offer enough flexibility to appeal to a wide selection of contractors.

He lists their attributes as that they can act in material loading with a grabber or a drag bucket, they are useful at demolition work, as well as dynamic soil compaction, and work with a diaphragm wall grabber and contribute to the all-important pipe -laying projects that currently dominate the Saudi market.

“These are the only two HS 895 HD cranes in the kingdom for the purpose of rental,” he adds.

The purchases have been rounded off by three more Liebherr machines, including the LR 1200 SX. “The LR 1200 is the newest Liebherr crawler crane with outstanding lift capacities (220t /250t (US)) and very compact dimensions (3m transport width),” he says. “Due to their high level of mobility and excellent performance characteristics, possible applications range from common lifting and assembly tasks to more simple clamshell and dragline applications.”

Throw in a 250t CKE 2500 ll Kobelco Crawler Crane and a 100t LTM 1100 5.2 Liebherr mobile telescopic crane, he is looking at a more rounded rental fleet prepared for whatever the Saudi market and its thriving contractors can throw at his company.

Saudi Cranes’ main office is in Jeddah placing it inside one of the most critically important regions for Saudi’s development. While its cranes are servicing construction across the Kingdom, he is particularly enthused about the work close to headquarters.

“If you move down the road on the Red Sea coast you will reach ten year harbour projects, there’s King Abdullah Economic City, which was affected by the economic crisis but is now back on track, there’s

“TO FACILITATE THIS OPERATION YOU NEED INFRASTRUCTURE AND YOU NEED ROADS.”

marine construction in that area too with the King Abdullah Sea Port,” he says. “Then moving down you’ve got Kingdom Tower which will be like Burj Khalifa. The whole city around it is going to be a community by itself.”

“Aside from this you have the Jeddah Airport which will have the Umrah pilgrimage throughout the year and also the Hajj season. The traffic is horrendous at that time!’’ He jokes. “But to facilitate this operation you need infrastructure and you need roads. On all levels you need development and to restructure the infrastructure all across Jeddah and all the way to Mekkah for the 3 million people that will be using the new airport.”

Almost without drawing a breath he describes the attitude of contractors: “so you have equipment?

Bring me the equipment!”

On a rental basis, the company can supply cranes from 50t to 500t (three units). It’s a good spread for a fleet but it is in the area of operators that Assafiri suggests that it has made its most important investment. It may even be what separates the company from most of its competition. In a region that is traditionally reluctant to trust its operators, Saudi Cranes has instead decided to empower them.

When on site it is they who must make the call on what is possible and safe to do.

If the operator refuses the request of a contractor on these grounds then Saudi Cranes will back them up, sometimes under extreme pressure.

“All our people have previous experience and have worked for other companies. Whether it’s by a government authority such as the TUB or other authorities, they have already been inspected,” he says. “Most of them would have been following Aramco’s high level of qualifications. The standards they follow are very strict. Not everyone can handle their qualifications.”

The region has a cosmopolitan representation when it comes down to its operator workforce, but Assafiri says that his company prefers to recruit from the Philippines.

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Interview

“WE ARE OFFERED CHINESE

ALTERNATIVES BUT I WILL WAIT.”

“They have proved that they are the best, committed and affordable,” he says.

Because of the enormous distances of the Kingdom, the company has to follow a remote operational basis. It is absolutely vital that the machines it owns are well maintained and cared for.

He says that as a rental service the challenge is to ensure that he is not causing too many “headaches” or delays to projects for his clients.

“Once the crane is outside we are fully responsible for the crane, the servicing and the maintenance,” he explains. “In addition to our lifting engineers, we have operational supervisors that are making site visits to meet the clients and assist with lift capacities. Not all clients understand what the capacities should be.

“Often you might have a client who wants a 90t crane but you go there and you realise that with a 60t and a shorter or longer boom it might be better.

I am trying to facilitate the client’s job and my job.”

This is one of the key differences between owning a rental fleet and trying to sell machinery. It is crucial that his fleet is managed properly.

He comments: “We are not trying to sell cranes – we are short of cranes. Once the client trusts you, he feels confident and he knows he’s dealing with experts.”

“Even Saudi Aramco is renting more these days.

Clients do not want headaches or delays through maintenance and repair,” he says. “Projects like the airport or the Mekkah railway are 24/7 and on double shifts. I might get a call at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning but you have to answer it and rectify a breakdown.”

Like with its operators, Saudi Cranes is prepared not to make any compromises with its maintenance CONSTRUCTION

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and repairs, choosing to wait for authorised spare parts even when alternatives might come faster.

“We are offered Chinese alternatives but I will wait even if it takes one month. You have to get what you are paying for. The market (unfortunately) is open for the fakes and the alternatives but we are having no Chinese.”

The Saudi government is funding much of the development in the Kingdom and, according to Assafiri, it has learnt the hard way that it needs to enforce stricter to controls on the quality of contractors and sub-contractors.

He adds: “You know in the past they had a lot of accidents. Standards are moving and they are getting higher. Whether its third party certification or a site inspector, consultant, machines have to go through three inspections.”

“If you have a breakdown and you go all the way down the chain, you are affecting the government,” he says. “Which you don’t want to do.”

While his crane service company’s fleet of 75 mobile cranes are busy serving the booming Saudi market, he stresses that the government remains interested in helping its young people to build their own futures via its Saudisation programme.

“If you are teaching a Saudi guy to become a crane operator the government will assist you and 50% of his salary,” he explained. “This is attractive plan for some big companies. It’s less cost in terms of visas, salaries and flights. You are investing in people and they are committed to you.

“Saudi guys want to know more. We have three, four in our offices, working in the mornings and studying in the evenings. They are really working hard. They know now is the time for them to grow, get the experience and find a job.”

QUALITY & STRENGTH Digging wayy to success gg g your y

Al Khobar P.O.Box: 2841, Al Khobar-31952, Saudi Arabia.

Tel: + 966 3 8576769, Fax: +966 3 857 4681 Email: Construction@saudidiesel.com.sa Web: www.saudidiesel.com.sa

BRANCHES Riyadh Tel: + 966 1 231 1931 / Fax: + 966 1 231 1031 Jeddah Tel: + 966 2 659 8500 / Fax: +966 2 659 8600 Jubail Tel / Fax: +966 3 363 4050

OTHER AREAS ( DEALERS) Tabuk Tel: +966 4 422 4490 / Fax: + 966 4 422 7225 Unaizah Tel: + 966 6 364 4555 / Fax: + 966 6 364 5969 Abha Tel: +966 7 227 0000 / Fax: +966 7 227 1944

Special Interview

I’M DOING THIS FOR MY COUNTRY As the first Emarati to compete in a global yacht race Adil Khalid has become a national hero in the UAE. He talks to CMME about his Olympic dream, life on-board the Volvo Ocean Race and risking life, limb and bad food.

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CMME: Adil, thank you for sparing your time as you prepare for the final leg of the race to Galway. So you’re sitting at home one day and you think I know, I’ll sail around the world - and now here we are in Lorient a few days from the finish. How does that happen?

ADIL KHALID: Well I wanted to compete in the Olympics but Volvo came in and said you are the best sailor in the UAE, would you like to do it?

And I said, ok, let me think about it and give me time! After that there were trials with 120 people applying to do it. I went in and there were testers and everything.

“SUDDENLY THE MAST WENT DOWN. I THOUGHT WE’RE A 100 MILES OUT AND WE’RE GOING TO BREAK THIS BOAT.”

CMME: Take us through that trial process – what did they make you do?

AK: We had started and were a hundred miles out.

We had this sail change and suddenly ten minutes the mast went down. I thought we’re a 100 miles out and we’re going to break this boat. The longest trip I had done was five days and we were in this situation. I was wondering, what am I doing? But I looked at the flag [the UAE flag proudly mounted on the aft of the boat] and thought I must do this because I love my country.

AK: We had to do the grinding test (the grinder is a two-man winch that lifts up the sails), raise the spinneker, defurring, show how to trim the sheets, wind the winch – fast.

CMME: How important is that flag to you after four hours sleep and the sea is rough? Does it keep you going?

CMME: Sounds exhausting!

AK: They wanted someone who could learn very fast, teach him, so he could go straight away.

CMME: Before entering the Volvo Ocean Race, what experience did you have?

AK: I used to race 45m boats between Dubai and Muscat. We used to do it in small keel boats.

AK: When you wake up and see that flag, and you know the country is behind you, it keeps you going.

You have to do it.

CMME: I got a sense of that when I saw the race in Abu Dhabi. Everyone was behind you and the boat.

CMME: That sounds a long way away from circumnavigating the globe?

AK: There were so many people! So many kids now want to do it. Hopefully I will one day be able to go around the world with a local team. It’s a dream.

I’ve met bin Zayed, Sheikh Makthoum and they told me, well done - you did it.

AK: (Laughs) Yes, the distance seems like nothing now! We used to it in less than 24 hours.

CMME: Can a team all from the UAE do this?

CMME: What did your family say when you told them you were going to go around the world in the Volvo Ocean Race?

AK: Maybe next year! We can have our boat, as all the boats we will have the same design [as part of

new rules being introduced to the race]. Sailing – anyone can do it with a year of training but the navigating is difficult. When you a put a team together you need a navigator. It is not easy, you have to learn, you have to travel. It can be hard.

CMME: Do you think you are a better sailor now then when you left?

AK: Everyday you are learning. Every mistake you are learning. You can’t control every situation.

You become more patient, learn how to chill out and relax. If you are skipper you have to control everything (although sometimes you need to cool him down!). This changes your life. It’s an amazing thing.

CMME: Are you going to have any friends or family waiting for you in Galway?

AK: Yes everybody is so excited. My friends are coming. Abu Dhabi - oh god!

CMME: What happens next for you after you finish the race?

AK: I want to develop sailing in Abu Dhabi. I want two, three people and do the Olympic Games in 2016. It’s my dream. I’ll bring people to the Olympic Games. I’ll do everything, train people, try to give them anything I didn’t get in my life I will give them to reach the Olympic level.

AK: They were happy. They were like, do anything you want. It’s your life. My family have always supported me. My friends and my club supporters have supported me all year round. I have support from everyone. It’s good.

CMME: Presumably after being selected you had to go into team training?

AK: We met in Abu Dhabi and trained on our old boat. The training was nice but it was hard and tough.

CMME: What did you find particularly hard during that training?

AK: The food! I didn’t like the food in the beginning. It was like eat the cat food? No way – what am I doing?! But I had to do it. I had a thousand people behind me.

CMME: What’s life like on-board, I mean, does everybody get on?

AK: Everybody gets on. Somtimes its hard work.

You have to learn and they push you hard. You have to do this thing or not do this thing because maybe you’re going to fall down. I had to (learn) how to take care of myself. It can be tough, sometimes you cannot move [below] or shower. It’s terrible.

CMME: I understand that very early into the race the boat ran into trouble.

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Special Report

HOW THE OLYMPICS WAS BUILT CONSTRUCTION

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CMME looks at how the East End of London was transformed by the Olympics.

e are used to seeing people build big in the Middle East,but even by the region’s standards, London 2012 has been a massive endeavour requiring the deployment of thousands of machines From securing the land to build the Olympic Park after the bid was won in 2005, to completing the majority of construction in 2011, a remarkable transformation has taken place in east London, the heart of the London 2012 Games. This area of untapped potential has been developed into a spectacular urban park with world-class venues and new infrastructure links – and the potential for further regeneration for decades to come.

W

Between then and summer 2008, work focused on preparing the site for construction. The ODA then began constructing the main venues and infrastructure – known as the ‘big build’.

This was completed on time and within budget by 27 July 2011 – one year ahead of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

This left the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) a year to add the overlay – such as timing systems and dressing – that will transform the new facilities into venues ready for the Games.

Elsewhere in the country, sporting venues have been enhanced or built from scratch, providing world-class facilities for the Games and for the longterm benefit of local communities and elite athletes.

Permanent venues have only been constructed when there is a long-term use. If there was not, then temporary venues have been built. Existing landmark venues – such as Wimbledon and Lord’s Cricket Ground are also being used.

Elsewhere, landmark sites, including Horse Guards Parade and Greenwich Park, have been transformed, providing spectacular settings for the sporting events and showcasing the UK’s landmarks.

“Throughout the construction programme and planning the Games themselves, we have been thinking of tomorrow,” say the organisers. “Our aim is for the Games to leave an amazing legacy – for the Games to be remembered not only as a summer of fantastic sport, but as the catalyst for the regeneration of one of the most underdeveloped areas of the UK.” In building the venues and staging the Games the bar was raised for both the construction industry and future large-scale events. In areas as diverse as sustainability, health and safety, equality and inclusion, and business, jobs and training we have set new standards to which others can now aspire.

Before construction on the 2.5 square kilometre site Olympic Park could begin, the ODA undertook the most extensive and sustainable clean-up operation ever seen in the UK. More than 200 buildings across the Olympic Park site were demolished, with 98% of the materials, such as stone and bricks, reclaimed to be reused or recycled on site or elsewhere. Buildings with relatively new steel-framed structures were taken down by hand so that the materials could be reused.

One building in the west of the Park was reclaimed and will form part of the new Energy Centre after the London 2012 Games.

THE ‘BIG BUILD’ The Olympic Delivery Authority, established in 2006, was responsible for building the main permanent venues and infrastructure on the Olympic Park, and the Olympic Village.

Every year from 2007, the ODA set out what it would achieve each year, to make it transparent and accountable for the significant public investment in the construction project.

The work started as soon as the ODA gained possession of the Olympic Park site in summer 2007.

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Special Report

The majority of utility networks (water, gas, electricity and telecommunications) were disconnected, removed or diverted, ready for brand new infrastructure to be installed. This new network will be the backbone for the future regeneration of the area after the Games.

Around 1.4 million cubic metres of soil was excavated, cleaned where necessary and reused on the Olympic Park to create a new accessible Park, with shallow gradients.Before soil could be safely reused on site, samples were tested for levels of contamination at an on-site laboratory.

Five huge on-site soil washing machines washed and sieved out pollutants from the site’s industrial past, including petrol, oil, tar and heavy metals such as arsenic and lead.

The main venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Games were constructed on time and within budget by July 2011, one year ahead of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.

While the Olympic Park site was being prepared, designs were being developed for each of the new venues. They needed to be an appropriate stage for the greatest sporting and cultural event on Earth, but they also needed to look beyond 2012.

Permanent venues were only built if there was a long-term use. Elsewhere, temporary venues have been built or existing venues transformed or enhanced for the Games. London 2012 also wanted to set an excellent standard of accessibility and be inclusive to all sections of society.

Before formal applications for the new venues on the Park were submitted to the planning authority, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)carried out extensive consultation with the local community and groups representing specific themes, such as accessibility, sustainability, security, faith, and

A temporary challenge Once the big build was completed on the Olympic Park, the final stage of preparing venues could get underway: installing overlay.

Overlay is all the temporary equipment and material needed to get venues ready to host an event – such as seating, tents, cabins, toilets, fencing, temporary power, flags, banner, PA systems, lighting and rigging. For London 2012, this includes more than 200,000 seats, enough tents to cover the whole of Hong Kong, and enough toilets to service the entire population of Malta.

The nature of overlay means it’s all temporary – London 2012 hires the equipment, it’s installed in venues, then is removed and goes back into the supplier’s stock after the Games. In some existing venues, London 2012 has

“THE OLYMPIC GAMES LEAVE AN AMAZING LEGACY FOR THE

worked with venue managers to install permanent facilities that will benefit venues in the long term – for example, toilet facilities or fences. In these cases, the overlay has been purchased rather than hired.

The Olympic Park represents a particular challenge due to its scale and complexity – around 60-70 overlay projects are required there to get it ready.

After the Games, most of the overlay will be taken down and cleared away by the end of October 2012. But there are a number of venues – particularly on the Olympic Park – that will take longer to decommission. These will be completed by the end of the year.

For venues such as Greenwich Park, which requires grass and ground reparations, works will be fully finished and the park returned to its former state by early 2013.

REGENERATION OF ONE THE MOST UNDERDEVELOPED AREAS OF THE UK” CONSTRUCTION

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health and safety. On the Park, the first sporting venue to gain planning permission was the Olympic Stadium, on which construction started in May 2008, closely followed by the Aquatics Centre. However, off the Park, work building work had begun six months earlier on the improvements at Weymouth and Portland.

Over the following year, planning permission was obtained and construction started on all the other permanent sporting venues, as well as the Olympic Village and non-sporting venues.

After the first year of the big build, the foundations of the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre were complete and underway on the other main venues.

Work had started or was about to begin on the smaller venues in the Park and most of the plots of the Olympic Village. The improvements to Weymouth and Portland had been completed – the first sporting venue to be ready for use.

By the end of the second year the Olympic Park had been transformed, with the structures of all the sporting venues completed and the enhancements finished. The final year of the big build saw the construction of all the venues completed, with them handed over to the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) so they could hold test events and add the finishing touches to transform the facilities into venues ready to stage the Games.

Less than two years after it had started, the construction of the Velodrome was completed in

THE COLOUR OF

February 2011. It was the first sporting venue on the Olympic Park to be finished by the ODA and passed to LOCOG, 18 months ahead of the Games. By then, the new Energy Centre and Primary Substation on the Park had already been finished and were operational, supplying power to the venues being built across the Park and to the adjacent Westfield Stratford City shopping centre.

One by one, the sporting venues on the Olympic Park were handed over by the ODA to LOCOG, finishing with the Aquatics Centre on 27 July 2011, one year ahead of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, bringing the big build to a close and leaving London a legacy that will last for decades.

DURABILITY

Productivity is only relative to life-time cost of ownership and the serviceability of your equipment.

Genie® telehandlers, offering fixed and rotating models with lift heights ranging from 6 m to 25 m and lift capacities from 2,500 kg to 6,000 kg, are easy to operate, service and maintain; all without compromising on performance.

It’s win-win for operator and owner. Both get a machine with the performance to meet the demands and pace of any worksite.

The operator gets a machine that they can handle almost instinctively.

TEL WEB EMAIL

+971 4 399 0381 www.genielift.me awp.infome@terex.com

Genie is a registered trademark of Terex, South Dakota. © 2012 Terex Corporation

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Lifting your

business

higher

Toyota Forklift is the #1 Lift Truck worldwide and in KSA. With outstanding reliability, industry-leading quality and value and a variety of models and load capacities, we can meet all your business needs. And our comprehensive service network and mobile fleet workshops keep your business on the move.

Jeddah: Tel: 02 6877058 - Fax: 026812311 Riyadh: Tel: 01 4950898 - Fax: 01 2131779 Ext 212 Dammam: Tel: 03 8176593 - Fax: 038177169 Asir: Tel: 07 2234347 - Fax: 07 2215651

Product Focus

Raw power

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW.

page 44 HIGH CONCEPT Atlas Copco takes a glance into its crystal ball with its vision of the future of drilling and mining equipment, the ROCX range of concept machines.

page 49 A FORKED ROAD

page 56 KUWAIT KICKS ON The Kuwait market may not be the most exciting in the region but it has the virtue of being a stable one.

CMME lists its biggest dealers.

CMME takes a multi-pronged approach to looking at the ups and downs of the forklift arena, including some of the latest new products ideal for ports and logistics work.

page 52 SPACE LIFT How Terex helped take the Space Shuttle Discovery to its ďŹ nal destination at the Smithsonian Institute.

page 45 COMPACT THINKING JCB continues to add to its range of compact excavators with the launch of the 8026CTS is a 2.7 tonne conventional tail swing excavator, which now sits alongside the JCB 8025 zero tail swing excavator.

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New Products

CONCEPT: ATLAS COPCO FUTURE GLIMPSE

A

tlas Copco provides a glimpse of the future in surface drilling at the Intermat fair in Paris. At the Atlas Copco booth, the company displayed three drill rig models that incorporate new thinking in design, system solutions and functionality.

The rigs, which bear the code names ROC Xone ROC Xtwo and ROC Xthree, are intended to show how Atlas Copco’s designers continuously push the boundaries of possibility.

Goran Popovski, Vice President, Marketing at Atlas Copco’s Surface Drilling division, says: “Our visionary development work is inspired by a deep understanding of our customers’ objectives and the challenges they face.�

ROCXone features extreme silencing systems and two independently operated booms; ROCXtwo has a separate wheel-positioning system for difficult terrain and flattens itself for loading and transport; while ROCXthree is extremely compact and fits into a standard 14-ft container. All three rigs use hydraulics for drilling only and electricity for all other functions.

It is the first time that the three concepts have been displayed together in public and are intended to serve as an inspiration for future drill rig design.

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CAT UNLEASHES REGION-READY TRACTOR WHY GET IT? SIMPLE BUT REFINED ROBUST HANDLING US Manufacturer Caterpillar is to release its latest model in its stripped down Middle East-friendly R-series.

The Cat D7R track-type tractor packs a Cat C9 ACERT engine, with a net power rating of 174 kW (240 hp) at rated engine speed, meets standards in accord with China Stage II (GB 20891-2007), EPA Tier 2 and EU Stage II emissions regulations.

Caterpillar says the D7R features a massive mainframe, heavy-duty undercarriage, robust powershift transmission, differential steering, pilotcontrolled hydraulics and efďŹ cient operator station.

The powerful-looking machine drips durability and Cat claims that low life time operating costs

through ability to rebuild components and overall machine efďŹ ciency.

While it may lack the sophistications of its Western cousins, Caterpillar has equipped the machine with the ďŹ eld-proven Cat ADEM 4 (Advanced Digital Engine Management) electronic control module to optimise engine performance and fuel economy. Controlled multiple fuel injections during the combustion cycle provide consistent power in all operating situations.

The durable, and unique, torque divider sends 70 percent of engine power through a torque converter and 30 percent through a direct-drive shaft, ensuring maximum drive train efďŹ ciency and the torque multiplication to move heavy loads.

The torque divider was initially introduced in the late 1950’s by Caterpillar and has demonstrated a ďŹ eld proven durable and reliable connection between the engine and the transmission. The planetary powershift transmission features 3 speeds forward and reverse with heavy-duty, large-diameter, high-capacity oil-cooled discs for maximum performance and long-life durability. The differential steering system provides the operator with an intuitive single tiller bar control for all directional and speed selections.

The implement hydraulics feature a pilot control and load-sensing system with a variable displacement pump, providing efďŹ ciency and fuel economy to get the work done.

SPECIFICATIONS t Std. Operating Weight: LH t Net Power Rating: L8 t SU Blade Capacity: NŠ

LIEBHERR TELESCOPIC HANDLER: NEW TL 441โ 13 WHY GET IT? ARGUABLY THE STRONGEST AND QUICKEST IN THE MARKET SAFETY CONSCIOUS DESIGN -JFCIFSS IBT SFQPTJUJPOFE JUT TFSJFT PG UFMFTDPQJD IBOEMFST 'PVS WFSTJPOT XJMM OPX CF BWBJMBCMF UIF 5- o 5- o 5- o VOE 5- o -JLF UIF QSFWJPVT NPEFMT UIFZ IBWF NBYJNVN MJGUJOH IFJHIUT PG FJUIFS PS NFUSFT CVU UIFJS NBYJNVN MPBE DBQBDJUJFT IBWF CFFO DPOTJEFSBCMZ JODSFBTFE UP BOE UPOOFT 5IF 5- o GFBUVSFT -JFCIFSS T JOOPWBUJWF CPPN QSP mMF XJUI JUT FYUSB HFOFSPVT DSPTT TFDUJPO BOE JOQVU PG GPSDFT BU UIF FEHFT GPS FYDFQUJPOBMMZ IJHI SJHJEJUZ XIFO FYQPTFE UP UPSTJPOBM MPBET 5IBOLT UP UIFJS PQUJNBM DFOUSF PG HSBWJUZ BDIJFWFE CZ B MPX QJWPU QPJOU GPS UIF UFMFTDPQJD CPPN UIF OFX UFMFTDPQJD SPECIFICATIONS t Engine: 4-cyl t Power: L8 t Lifting height: N t Max load capacity: U

IBOEMFST QPTTFTT FYDFMMFOU TUBCJMJUZ BOE HFO FSBUF VOVTVBMMZ IJHI MJGUJOH GPSDF EVSJOH CPUI MJGUJOH BOE MPBEJOH NPWFNFOUT 5IF UXP MJGUJOH SBNT MPDBUFE BU UIF TJEFT PG UIF CPPN BWPJE UPSTJPOBM TUSFTTFT FWFO XIFO MJGUJOH WFSZ IFBWZ MPBET BOE IFMQ UP FOTVSF MPOH USPVCMF GSFF PQFSBUJOH MJGF 5IFZ BMTP DPOTJEFSBCMZ JODSFBTF UIF CSFBLPVU GPSDF BWBJMBCMF BU UIF XPSLJOH FRVJQNFOU "O BVEJCMF BOE WJTVBM PWFSMPBE XBSOJOH EFWJDF LFFQT UIF PQFSBUPS BXBSF PG UIF NBDIJOF T SFNBJOJOH MJGUJOH DBQBDJUZ BU BMM UJNFT -PBE NPNFOU MJNJUJOH JT B TUBOEBSE GFBUVSF JU BVUPNBUJDBMMZ SFEVDFT UIF TQFFE PG UIF QPXFS IZESBVMJDT BOE UIVT FOBCMFT UIF OPNJOBM NBYJNVN MPBE UP CF BQQSPBDIFE JO TBGFUZ *G UIF MPBE DPOUJOVFT UP JODSFBTF UIF MPBE NPNFOU MJNJUFS BVUPNBUJDBMMZ JOIJCJUT BOZ GVODUJPOT UIBU DPVME MFBE UP UIF NBDIJOF

PWFSUVSOJOH 'SPN UIBU NPNFOU PO POMZ NPWFNFOUT UIBU SFTUPSF B TBGF PQFSBUJOH NBSHJO BSF QFSNJUUFE 5IFTF -JFCIFSS UFMFTDPQJD IBOEMFST BSF QPXFSFE CZ B UVSCP DIBSHFE GPVS DZMJOEFS JOMJOF FOHJOF XJUI BO PVUQVU PG L8 IQ

5IF 5- UFMFTDPQJD IBOEMFST GFBUVSFT N MJGUJOH IFJHIU BOE PVUSJHHFS TVQQPSUT -JFCIFSS TVQQMJFT MBUFSBM CPPN NPWFNFOU BT BO PQUJPOBM FYUSB 5IJT JT PCUBJOFE CZ TJEFXBZT NPWFNFOU PG UIF NBDIJOF PO JUT TVQQPSUT QBET 5IF XPSLJOH BUUBDINFOU NPWFT JO QBSBMMFM XJUI UIF HSPVOE UISPVHIPVU JUT BEKVTUNFOU SBOHF 5IJT VTFGVM PQUJPO QSPWJEFT -JFCIFSS UFMFTDPQJD IBOEMFST XJUI TBGF QSFDJTF MPBE NPWF NFOUT FWFO BU DPOTJEFSBCMF IFJHIUT XJUIPVU UIF DPNQMFUF NBDIJOF IBWJOH UP UBLF VQ B OFX XPSLJOH QPTJUJPO

HAULOTTE ARTICULATING BIG IDEAS WHY GET IT? A TRUE INVENTORY ALL-ROUNDER TIGHT HANDLING "NPOH JUT CJH CPPNT SBOHF )BVMPUUF DMBJNT JUT BSUJDVMBUJOH CPPN )" 19 JT POF PG UIF NPTU FGm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

UFSSBJO DPOEJUJPOT BOE BMMPXT FBTJFS BDDFTT UP UIF NPTU DPOHFTUFE BSFBT *O PSEFS UP LFFQ JNQSPWJOH UIF VTFS T DPNGPSU BOE ESJWJOH UIF )" 19 GFBUVSFT BO JNQSPWFE IZESBVMJD TZTUFN .PWFNFOUT BSF TPGUFS BOE NPSF nFYJCMF UIBOLT UP UFNQPSJTJOH 4JNVMUBOFPVT NPWFNFOUT BMMPX B RVJDL BDDFTT UP UIF XPSLJOH BSFB $POUJOVPVT ยก UVSOUBCMF SPUBUJPO UIF nZJOH KJC NPUJPO BOE UIF ยก QMBUGPSN SPUBUJPO PGGFS IJHIFS NBOPFVWSBCJMJUZ XIBUFWFS UIF XPSLJOH FOWJSPONFOU 5IF N GVFM UBOL mMMJOH IFJHIU BOE UIF SPUBUJOH FOHJOF USBZ NBLF NBJOUFOBODF FBTJFS 5IPTF BEWBOUBHFT BMMPX CFUUFS XPSLJOH DPOEJUJPOT GPS UIF VTFS BOE B IJHIFS QSPEVDUJWJUZ SPECIFICATIONS t Outreach: N t Total height: N t Rotation: ยก t Turntable: ยก t Generator L8

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New Products

THE NEXT POWERFUL MINI FROM JCB WHY GET IT? IMPROVEMENTS ACROSS THE BOARD EXTRA GRUNT ADDS 11% TO SPEED JCB is continuing to expand its range of mini excavators, launching the brand new 8026CTS mini excavator – a machine offering strength, performance and durability in, what it calls, a compact package.

The 8026CTS is a 2.7 tonne conventional tail swing excavator, which now sits alongside the JCB 8025 zero tail swing excavator.

The new 8026 features: Short pitch tracks and auto kick-down, with 11% increase in travel speed New valve block with 17% longer spool stroke offers increased precision control.

The 8026 is even more efficient than the 8025, due to the lower power rating of the 3 cylinder 18kW, 24hp Perkins engine and it delivers an 8% efficiency gain, driving a ‘Nachi’ variable displacement hydraulic pump.

The 8026 has a lower centre of gravity and the 1.22m tail swing around the new black counterweight means it has outstanding lift capacity

and excellent stability, offering better productivity, versatility and operator confidence.

A redesigned undercarriage offers greater stability and durability. Better stability is achieved through a slew turret that is now 35mm lower. A new top roller replaces a metal skid plate, increasing the durability of the new short pitch tracks, which have been introduced to reduce: noise, vibration and to improve ride quality.

SPECIFICATIONS t Engine: 3-cyl Perkins engine Engine t Power: 18kW t Tail swing: 1.22m t Travel speed: 5 km/h t Dig depth: 2.8m

LIUGONG MACHINES ON A ROLL WHY GET IT? A DECENT CHINESE ALTERNATIVE GOOD CAPACITY AND POWER RATINGS

SPECIFICATIONS t Model: Operating Weight: Rated Power t Height: 2.5m t Drive speed: 3 km/h t Gradeability: 23% t Load capacity: 350 kg

LiuGong’s new line consists of three tandem hydrostatic models -- ranging from 2,450 kg to 2,850 kg – and a new 11,300 kg hydrostatic single-drum machine.

LiuGong is fast becoming a global leader in roller design and manufacturing, and these new machines demonstrate how serious they are about the market.

The company’s approach is to build highly efficient and reliable machines that are easy to service and own. As a result, LiuGong now ranks as the second largest exporter of rollers from China.

The models 6024, 6026 and 6028 tandems feature a new high-frequency roller technology

that delivers high-density compaction and a consistently flat and even surface in the fewest passes possible. With their dual amplitude settings and 63 to 52 Hz vibration frequency range, the machines cover a broad range of material consistencies and applications.

Working widths range from 1,000 mm for the model 6024 to 1,250 mm for the model 6028.

The high-output Kubota diesel engines provide solid, reliable power and hydraulic flow with low fuel consumption.

An advanced cooling system provides control over hydraulic fluid temperature.

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

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ALGECO’S ANTI-BLAST RANGE MAKES MIDDLE EAST DEBUT WHY GET IT? MILITARY-GRADE SPECS BYRNE HANDLING RENTAL Algeco, the leading global supplier of modular space and secure storage rental and sales solutions, is delighted to launch its unique Anti-Blast range of modular buildings in the Middle East. The explosion resistant buildings are designed specifically for hazardous environments, providing protection in areas of potential explosion, making them perfectly suited to the Middle East’s buoyant petrochemical and oil & gas sectors.

Already successful in Europe, the Anti-Blast range of enhanced modular buildings has been designed to specifically address the potential hazards encountered in petrochemical, energy and process industries and provide a significant degree of protection to

occupants in the event of an incident.

The buildings are constructed to rigorous standards and provide a target level of protection of 1% vulnerability. The range is generally supplied to withstand 100Mba free field overpressure with 200Mba reflective overpressure on any face, with the pulse duration at 100m sec. Buildings that can withstand up to 320Mba over pressure are also available.

Jim Muldoon, GCC General Manager at Algeco, said: “This is a significant launch for Algeco in the Middle East – it’s the first time that an anti-blast product to the market in this region which means we are now able to enter new markets with a wider range of tailored products. The launch is a significant strategic step.”

POWER

YOUR PROJECTS WITH PEAX

Get in touch

Toll-Free 800 166 PEAX (7329) KSA A branch of Saudi Diesel Equipment Co. Ltd. www.peax.com info@peax.com

Sector Analysis

The prime movers CMME looks at the forklift sector and asks what are the choice picks for buyers and renters of the equipment? egional investment into ports and logistical hubs has raised the profile of the humble forklift in the market. Buyers have an enviable choice when it comes to equipment both all used and new.

The used market has proven to be particularly strong as the combination of a higher demand in a difficult economic environment has made the importing of equipment a popular move for companies.

Paul de Jong, sales manager Middle East and Africa at Forkliftcenter, says that prices for reach stackers and empty container handlers are also likely to be affected by the extra capacities that are coming on-stream in the GCC. Forkliftcenter ships in equipment to the region, selling to traders and clients needing equipment from 1t material handlers

R

and upwards, he tells CMME. Some countries like the UAE have well-established logistics hubs like Jebel Ali, others like Qatar are in the process of building up their capacities. With imports outstripping exports, he says that some customers needs are better suited for empty container handlers rather than reach stackers.

“The last time I was in Doha I had three meetings with empty container depot (companies),” he explains.

“Here in the region, your DP Worlds, Abu Dhabi ports buy new equipment which they re-new every five years because containers are used. However there are also mainland/inland terminals that don’t have that intensity of use. For them to buy new doesn’t make sense. They have more time to maintain their equipment.”

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Sector Analysis

“BY LAUNCHING THESE NEW FORKLIFTS, WE AIM TO EDUCATE THE MARKET.” Used reach stackers can also be used in other applications he explains.

“I’ve seen them used in pipelaying. You can use the twist interlock on a reach stacker to do heavy lifting.

If you have steel plates like you find on construction sites they can be used instead of cranes.

De Jong adds: “The advantage for some companies is that they be resold afterwards.”

One of the more intriguing moves in the new market in the region is the progress of forklift company Etali, which is looking to produce European standard equipment in KSA. While it is still early days in terms of a start up, co-founder David O’Callaghan hopes production could start late this year.

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In terms of new equipment technology, manufacturers are increasingly evaluating how new technology can make operations more productive.

New vehicles such as rolling ladders are now being used in some locations for picking.

More attention is also being given to ergonomics, which has resulted in new features that enhance operator comfort. Everything from the control handles and steering wheels, to the seat and flexible floorboards, and even the way operators step on and off the truck has been enhanced with ergonomic features.

New advancements in mast design have greatly improved visibility as well.

So, what do we mean by forklift?

In its simplest form a forklift is a powered piece of equipment designed to lift and transport material and are usually classified as tow-motor, lift truck, industrial truck, cherry picker and others. However because of the wide number of applications possible with the vertical lift configuration there are several different types of forklifts.

The types or classes of forklifts are classified by their type of engine, work environment

(usually indoors, outdoors, narrow aisle, smooth or rough surfaces), the operator position (whether they are sitting down or standing), and the characteristics of the equipment itself, such as tyre-type, grades, etc.

There are seven recognised classes of forklifts starting with Class 1 forklifts which use electric motors and come with cushion or pneumatic tyres. In turn this class has four sub-categories: Counterbalanced rider type, stand up; three-wheel electric,

At last year’s Material Handling event in Linde dealer FAMCO launched the company’s Innovative Electronic Counterbalance E25 series of E-trucks into the market.

The range of trucks is powered by 80V system armed with high-torque lifting and driving motors using AC technology. These new forklifts are known for their productive output with high standards of safety and ergonomics for the logistics & 3 PLs, pharmaceutical, FMCG & foodstuff industries.

“By launching these new forklifts at Materials Handling Middle East, we aim to create market awareness about the advantages of our products to the wider market,” said David Dronfield, General Manager, Storage Handling Solutions at FAMCO before the event. “Additionally, we aim to educate the market on the solutions and professional consultancy we provide,” he added.

Its relationship with sector player Hyster makes Kanoo Machinery a major force in the Middle East,

sit down; counterbalanced rider, cushion tire sit down; counter balanced rider, sit-down rider.

Class 2 forklifts are electric motor narrow aisle trucks with solid tires. Class 3 forklifts include electric hand trucks or hand/rider trucks with solid tires. Class 4 forklifts are Internal Combustion Engine sit down rider forklifts with cushion tires and generally suitable for indoor use on hard surfaces.

Class 5 forklifts are internal combustion engine sit down

rider forklifts with pneumatic tires. These are typically used outdoors, on rough surfaces, or significant inclines. Class 6 forklifts can either be electric or Internal Combustion Engine powered. These are ride on units with the ability to tow at least at least 1000 pounds. This class is designed to tow cargo rather than lift it. Class 7 forklifts are rough terrain trucks with pneumatic tires. Class 7 trucks are almost exclusively powered by diesel engines and are used outdoors.

including the key Saudi Arabian market. High oil prices and an increase in the cost of rubber is encouraging some port operators to rethink their operation to reduce their long term costs and improve their viability.

According to the equipment manufacturer, ports all over the world are adopting new Hyster technologies that significantly reduce the consumption of these important commodities.

“Hyster recently introduced fuel savings up to 15% for the life of a vehicle with new energy efficient technologies” Jan-Willem van den Brand, product strategy manager for Hyster Big Trucks said last year.

“This is a massive saving for operators of high capacity forklift trucks and container handling fleets.”

Hyster achieved the savings by combining Cummins engine technology with performance optimisation developments such as cooling on demand, RPM management and alternate engine idle speed.

Forklifts that are used outside typically fall into Class 4 and used indoors in applications such as manufacturing, warehousing, bottling and trucking. They ride on solid rubber tires called cushion tires. They can be powered by either Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), gasoline, Diesel, or be dual fuel. Dual fuel means that the forklift is equipped with both LPG and Gas fuel systems and can be run on either one but not at the same time. The engine powers all the functions of the truck, drive and hydraulics.

“Hyster has a reputation for designing tough and dependable trucks with a low cost of operation and we have now managed to make an unmistakable difference at the pumps” he commented.

According to van den Brand, the entire Hyster ‘Big Truck’ range over 16 tonnes is Tier 4i/Stage IIIB compliant and delivers massive financial savings.

A number of container ports in the Middle East, South Africa, Europe, US and Asia have also received the first batch of empty container handlers that incorporate Hyster tyre saving technology which reduces tyre wear up to a factor of three.

“Tyres on large container handlers are not only costly and time consuming to change, they produce a great deal of waste and the availability may not always be there” remarked van den Brand.

“With the rising price of rubber, it is not surprising that container ports are adopting this technology.”

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

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Cranes

End of the space race May saw the final journey of Space Shuttle Discovery to Washington’s Smithsonian Institute.

For contractor J F Lomma it was the end of two years of careful planning. or the Space Shuttle Discovery, it was a journey of nearly 150 million miles that ended at Washington Dulles International Airport. Discovery’s maiden voyage was made on August 30, 1984, and it flew 39 successful missions into space over its 27-plus years of service.

It was the most traveled and storied of all the space shuttles in NASA’s fleet.

On April 17, 2012 Discovery made its final voyage atop its Boeing 747 Shuttle Aircraft Carrier (SAC) with much fanfare from onlookers and local, national and international media. Reports focused on its final flight and place in space exploration history.

Battled and scorched from dozens of space missions, Discovery replaced the pristine Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Smithsonian Institution’s James S. McDonnell Space Hangar at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Before being towed from Dulles to its final exhibit place, Discovery had to be hoisted

F

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from its carrier and its landing gear lowered into place one final time.

How is the shuttle removed from its 747 SAC perch when it’s not at a space centre?

That is where the mainstream media’s coverage and fanfare ends, and the work for South Kearny, N.J.-based J. F. Lomma, Inc. and the Terex CC 2800-1 crawler crane begins.

Under the cover of night in the late evening hours of April 19, 2012 and slipping into the early morning hours of April 20, Lomma and the United Space Alliance work crews methodically hoisted the 196,400 (89,085 kg) shuttle off of the 747 SAC. “You cannot describe what it’s like to be part of space shuttle history,” says Frank Signorelli, crane and rigging manager for J. F. Lomma, Inc. Josh Barnett, field service representative for Terex Cranes, who was on site to support Lomma on the lift, added, “It was a one-of-a-kind experience.”

The Terex CC 2800-1 The CC 2800-1 offers a maximum 660-ton (600-tonne) lift capacity at a 32.8-ft (10-m) radius and excellent lifting capacities throughout its entire working range. Its variable Superlift radius increases lifting capacities at further distances away from the crane’s base. A variety of boom configurations, including extensions, luffing jib, windmill kit, vessel lift, as well as many other modules are available to increase crane versatility.

Transportability is improved due to

the CC 2800-1’s open-boom design.

These rectangular sections do not sit as high on the trailer as competitive boom designs, and no internal cross bracing allows smaller boom sections to be nested inside of larger sections to reduce the number of trailers required for transport.

Its crane control system features a touchscreen with intuitive pictorial displays for operating ease. The crane’s Quadro-Drive system improves stability and allows the base to move and spin under load.

Serving the New Jersey and New York area as well as markets from coast to coast and select international markets, Lomma has seen its share of historic work.

This includes supplying crane and rigging services for construction work that continues today at the World Trade Center.

For Lomma, planning for this job started nearly two years ago when company officials first considered bidding for the job. NASA was very specific in what equipment was required for the work. “The bid called specifically for the Terex CC 2800-1 as the primary crane to do the pick as well as all of the other supporting cranes and equipment,” says Signorelli.

Part of the reason for this lies with NASA’s experience with this crane model for a similar pick decades ago. When the 747 SAC transports the space shuttle to a place other than a space center, there is a need for crane and rigging equipment. “These picks do not happen often, since NASA already has a shuttle removal method in place at each space center,” explains Barnett.

In the early 1990s, NASA had the rare need to hoist a shuttle from the 747 SAC, and a Terex legacy brand was selected for the job. “A Demag 2800 crawler crane was used in that project as the primary crane,” mentions Jim Creek, Terex Cranes’ senior product manager for crawler cranes – North America. “NASA has a history of successful lifts with this crane.”

Staples of the Terex crawler crane line, the CC28001 and its predecessor, the CC 2800, have worked on jobsites throughout the world for more than 20 years. The CC 2800-1 offers a 660-ton (600-tonne) capacity at a 32.8-ft (10-m) radius, more than enough to handle Discovery’s weight.

It features a maximum 196.9-ft (60-m) main boom length and a variable 100-ft (30.5-m) radius Superlift attachment to boost lift capacities.

“Superlift offers an additional 4,000 to 600,000 lb (1,814 to 272,155 kg) of counterweight on the tray, which enables the crane to lift more weight further from the crane’s base,” says Creek.

Having the right experience and all the necessary equipment to complete the job, Lomma was awarded the shuttle project. It consisted of not one but two shuttle hoists. The first lifted the Space Shuttle Discovery off of the 747 SAC for the shuttle’s eventual spot at the Smithsonian. The second loaded the Space Shuttle Enterprise onto the carrier, so it could be flown to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

It took Lomma nearly three months to prepare for and arrange the pick. “We had conference calls with NASA two times a week,” says Signorelli.

“Communication was often and thorough between our company and NASA.” Lomma purchased the CC 2800-1 ultimately used for the pick about two years ago. It was on rent with a customer in Quebec. Upon returning to the yard, the crane was rigged to make sure the right components were in place for the job. “We ran the crane in our yard,” says Signorelli. “The (IC-1) computer screen is extremely user friendly and self-explanatory. It’s not CONSTRUCTION

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“THIS IS SOMETHING I WAS ABLE TO TAKE MY KIDS TO SEE, AND A STORY THEY WILL TELL THEIR CHILDREN.”

a complicated crane to operate.”

Upon completing the dry run at the yard, Lomma disassembled the crane and sent the components to the jobsite. Lomma’s crews spent three days at Dulles rigging the CC 2800-1 and a fourth day running through test lifts to make sure everything would go smoothly.

When it came time for the shuttle pick, there was very little left to question. “NASA had everything marked out on the ground – positioning for the Terex crane, the supporting crane and the 747,” explains Signorelli.

The CC 2800-1 crawler crane was equipped with a 177-ft (53.9-m) main boom and a 98-ft (29.9-m) Superlift mast. Lomma used 352,000 lb (159,665 kg) of main counterweight with no central ballasts.

Superlift counterweight of 275,000 lb (124,738 kg) was added to the tray 50 ft (15.2 m) from the crane base. “Normally, a lift like this would require only 220,000 lb (99,790 kg) on the Superlift, but NASA’s additional safety factor required an extra 55,000 lb (24,948 kg) on the tray,” explains Barnett.

The additional safety requirement stemmed from the need for workers to be under the live load while unhooking the shuttle from its 747 SAC. “NASA required a 75% derate from the crane’s standard 85% chart, which is a big safety factor,” mentions Signorelli.

In the overnight hours, when airport activities were at a lull and winds were calm, Lomma and

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

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United Space Alliance crews began the removal of the shuttle. The 747 SAC, supporting crane lifting the front of the shuttle and CC 2800-1 lifting the heavier back end were all positioned according to NASA’s layout.

NASA engineers used calculations from the CC 2800-1’s IC-1 controls to map out the final position of the crane. “They wanted the connection between the shuttle and our crane to be at 112 ft (34.1 m),” says Barnett, “and the actual distance in the field from the center of the crane to the hook was 111.9 ft (34.1 m). They were impressed with IC-1’s accuracy.”

Slowly and with precision the pick began with the weight shifting and then transferring to the cranes as the brackets were removed from the shuttle and carrier. After the shuttle hovered a safe distance over the carrier, a pushback tug backed it from underneath the shuttle. The shuttle was then lowered to within a few feet of the ground. Auxiliary hydraulic power lowered the shuttle’s landing gear for a final time before the cranes lowered it to the ground.

“The subtle movements offered by the CC 2800-1’s hydraulic system definitely helped with this pick,” says Barnett. “If the crews only needed 0.5 inch (12.7 mm) of movement, the crane was able to give it to them.”

A few days later, Discovery was towed to the Smithsonian and replaced the Space Shuttle Enterprise, which had been on display inside the James S. McDonnell Space Hangar since 2003.

This prompted a second pick and final move of the Enterprise to its new home in New York.

Within a week after the Discovery pick, Lomma’s crews were back at Dulles, this time to reverse the process and load Enterprise on the 747 SAC. With one hoist project already completed, the second pick of the Enterprise went equally as smooth as the Discovery effort. “Enterprise was actually much lighter than Discovery, so we had no issues,” says Signorelli.

Enterprise, via the 747 SAC, took off from Dulles on April 27 for its final home in New York City and landed at JFK International Airport. At the same time, the CC 2800-1 crane components were derigged and loaded onto trucks and trailers heading for New York.

Once arriving at JFK, the crane equipment was rigged, tested and ready for another shuttle pick.

Enterprise was loaded onto a special wheeled transport and moved into a hangar at JFK. It embarked on a three-day journey on the Hudson River in early June. Its final destination is the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City.

“It’s indescribable to be a part of history,” comments Signorelli. “This is something I was able to take my kids to see, and a story they will tell their children.”

Dealer Round-Up

KUWAIT Al Bahar Al Zabin Group Bahrah Trading Company TIECO (Trading & Industrial Equipment Company)

FIND ME A DEALER!

The Kuwait market is quietly picking up with several projects in the pipeline or underway. CMME looks at its best dealers .

AL BAHAR GCC-wide MAIN BRANDS: Caterpillar, KoneCranes, Hiab Cranes, Terex Cranes, Atlet, Landoll Trucks

www.albahar.com CONTACT: BAHRAIN +973 1770 5177; KUWAIT +965 2 491 9436; OMAN +968 24 509 000; QATAR +974 4600 222; UAE +971 2 555 4200

Mohamed Abdulrahman Al-Bahar, founded in 1937, is one of the leading business houses in the Gulf. It has two major divisions: the Machinery

Group and the General Trading Group. Through the Machinery Group, established in 1959, the company represents Caterpillar in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and in Oman through an associate, Oasis Trading and Equipment Company. The head office is located in Sharjah, UAE. Caterpillar machinery and power systems are supplied by Al Bahar for a wide variety of applications including earthmoving, building and heavy construction, mining, road making, demolition, waste and scrap handling, electric power generation and marine propulsion. In addition, the company also supplies KoneCranes lift trucks, Hiab and Terex Cranes, Atlet warehouse trucks and Landoll narrow aisle trucks. With a staff of more than 1,500 people in 11 branches around the Gulf, the Machinery

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

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Group of Al Bahar offers customised solutions for equipment and power systems requirements, including sales and rental, new and used.

loaders and industrial equipment including forklift trucks, generators, compressors, and air plasma cutters. Bahrah Trading represents many world leading brands and has established dominant market shares in Kuwait, in many cases exceeding 50%, according to the company.

TIECO (TRADING & INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT COMPANY) Kuwait MAIN BRANDS: SDMO, Perkins, Massey Fergusson, Ingersoll Rand

www.tiecokuwait.com

AL ZABIN GROUP Kuwait MAIN BRANDS: Volvo machinery

www.alzabinsons.com CONTACT: +965 433 4721

In 1990, chairman Abdulaziz Faisal Al Zabin and managing partner Michael Haddad established Al Zabin Heavy Equipment (AHE). AHE is a pioneer in supplying high quality machinery and equipment for all sectors in the construction industry in Kuwait. The deep roots of the partners go back to the late 1950s, early 1960s, a relationship that works as a strong foundation for the success of AHE. The company claims to have one of the best facilities and a team of experienced equipment-, maintenance- and repair technicians. The company also says that its equipment care workshop is built especially to support unique after sales services and stocks “the right parts, at the right price, right now�.

BAHRAH TRADING COMPANY Kuwait MAIN BRANDS: Bobcat, Toyota Forklift, Sakai Compaction Equipment, Aisle Forklift, Ashok Leyland, Doosan Construction Equipment, Ingersoll Rand, Daewoo

www.bahrahtrading.com CONTACT: +965 2 180 3803

Bahrah Trading Company was established in 1965 as a supplier of equipment to the oil industry. In 1976, Bahrah Trading was acquired by the Al Sayer Group and, today, supplies the whole spectrum of industries in Kuwait. Bahrah Trading claims its strong reputation in Kuwait has been built on superior products, a wide range of high quality industrial and transportation solutions and unparalleled market support. The company also says it has the largest industrial database that allows it to be leaders in fleet and industrial products, which include vans, pickups and trucks; heavy equipment for the construction industry including excavators, loaders, cranes, and skid steer

CONTACT: + 965 481 9188

TIECO has an equipment hire section operating within the workshop for generating sets of all sizes, load bank for generator testing, air compressors of all sizes and welding machines.

This is one of the most active sections in the workshop. The company was established in 1964 and is one of the largest importers and distributors of industrial equipment, construction equipment, tools, agro equipment and chemicals in Kuwait.

According to the company, its annual sales turn over is $16m as averages for the last five years.

With branches already in Dubai since 1974, the company is now planning to establish branches in Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon. Its fuel injection workshop is one of the biggest and well equipped and most active of its kind in Kuwait, with technicians well trained to repair and maintain most types of fuel injection pumps.

Tel: +966 3 802 4938 Fax: +966 3 826 9894 www.ahqsons.com info@ahqsons.com

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The Last Word oving Despite impr s and es safety awaren , avoidable inspections ntinue. accidents co

engineering head of the e th , ed m icipality’s Al Moham n at the mun io ct se any level n io is superv e would go to “W t. en our m rt pa are sending buildings de cidents. We ac t.” of en d n m ki rt tion depa to stop this dings inspec il bu e ed th ct to du en con reports k may have be nces While the wor permission, both incide er op al pr dividu s wit hout the rtance that in po im vy e th of s of using hea remind us ding the risk n ta rs de n u have in height. especially at operators equipment, be avoided if ld u co ts n de e inspection Crane acci e leading cran on g, in n ai tr get more ME. ing expert tells CM operations manager, Lift s u s d in y, tion m lle ec Co re sp d r in ar e h to an ic R era p o n ions, at cr is a iv f D o T that D E N th M & a The de way to go. Equipment tquality specialist Velosi toldorCM g n . He lo ed a at s el a -r h ty fe a and asse e operat s ar e ts n n de ra ci c on ac t ane tha n reas 80-90% of cr of ten the mai of training is gion. re ck e la a th d in de ad nts happen de ci ors ac e er bl lem of op at why avoida lley, the prob to Co g n to ti g n la di re Accor ngers nding the da ted ta rs ra pe de n as u ex lly n not fu erator was ent is of te op m e ip an u cr eq o t in if -l a Filip have blic using heavy he news that ers who also was made pu d site manag ing to height . an al t ty sc fe an le sa ur pl hi e fo w by t d an kille e of cr ws abou al piece of ne ent knowledg operators,” th. ci nt on om ffi de m fr ci su e st in in la dg an ai le as Dub ck of know e weekend in “There is a la a one-day deaths over on ities in the or th ay only take au m by ey h rt “T po . re id e a is not enough h sa r to e h killed af te e. But there According rs as u w co or on at ti er e.” crane op tragic familiarisa down the lin emirate, the line. It was a r on all the way de ti d growing in ltage power ca m an u vo re h ed on a ig ti d h la a struck ging regu accident, an an e bl ch to be da It te . oi pi n on av es ti D ly ts con ue occupati and an entire ess, acciden a hazardous en s ealt h ar n g H ai i aw in m n ab ty re ai h fe g D tr sa E. The A bu standard of A that operatin e U heth e er th ov in s ere 101 on-t estion recorded that there w also raises qu UAE. ed er e rt ag th po an in re M t y b, it en agem Author , the l Aziz Zuru al u ci bd fi A of . and site man ce 10 is li 20 iv SE) D ion a senior po job deat hs in vironment (H area on the i En il According to d sa an Li l ty A fe e id last month rred in th ed to - Healt h, Sa unicipality sa operator fail M accident occu e i th ab h en D accidents h w bu the city at the A of reported r be m u n outskirts of e ed th ed due to er line. that he fear than at believ ad Saif Al er m h ig am h spot the pow oh as M w r al Enginee and fatalities tment, said Major Gener at able data.

Traffic Depar e th of s or announced th re ct a lack of reli fi of r be m u and the RTA Zafein, dire n C a O an d m EN ke , er ar G ar h sp ye wit Last wires s a partnership striking the ere entering out inspection w e. y to ey rr an d th ca cr te e to er th D al e SU s er V w le across s TU ic t h le ic tfi ve h ruction rns fense ve inspection ou es and const While civil de an d to severe bu cr s be it m 00 if u ,0 cc on 10 su ti gula erator g a fire of around hat good is re the fire the op to put out the fires usin i. However w . ba g u im D in h e pt in u m sc te ? while at ey could re understood and before th not abided or e-related an cr extinguisher ly on e e wasn’t th workers wer Tragically it month. Two st la e i th ba u h D it w accident in pairs to a roof ng observing re killed while were overseei . The victims le ad cr a a of help ed from work conduct A rigged maintenance psed. lla co it le when operation hanging crad unicipality The Dubai M The most important job of any e company th revealed that crane operation is rigging of the k repair wor carr ying out load.

Poor rigging may result in z in Al Quo at the camp personnel injury, property damage, or g in do as w a2 other serious hazards. Rigging is the Industrial Are rst acquir ing fi ut ho it w most time consuming of any crane so permits. operation and represents the single municipality li l Liasai most hazardous potential of Unlike the A response was e th nt crane operation. incide iate. ed m im t os m al spend the “We might su Mar w an cence,” said company’s li

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