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SALIM’S DYNAMIC CHOICE
SALIM EQUIPMENT RENTAL AND ITS PARTNER DAIKYO KENKI CHOOSE LIEBHERR DUTY CYCLE CRANES TO EXPAND THEIR FLEET AS THEY STRENGTHEN THEIR DYNAMIC COMPACTION OFFERING
When UAE-based Salim Equipment Rental and Japan-based Daikyo Kenki, expanded their rental business in the Middle East recently, they continued to invest in lift cranes and duty cycle cranes. Coming together in 2015 as a joint venture to offer cranes with operators for hire to the local market, their fleet now comprises seven crawler cranes from 50-250t capacity. Both members of the joint venture have a long history to fall back upon. Salim Equipment Rental, previously a part of AAA Rentals, was launched in 1980 as a trading company by Col. Salim Ahmed Nasir (Retd.) and Mrs. Nahid Salim, parents of the company’s current president and CEO, Sajil Salim. The founders originally supplied over 1,000 units of pre-owned Tadano and Kato cranes to the MENA region and backed this up with dedicated service. Then in 2006, they turned to the rental market with a fleet of lift cranes supplied and serviced from their Dubai premises. Today, SALIM has its own fleet of crawler cranes independent from the JV with Daikyo. Also, SALIM remains the authorised dealers of Kato crawlers from 50-250t for the UAE region.
Daikyo, meanwhile, is among the leading heavy equipment rental companies in Japan. Established in 1965, it has a fleet of 120 machines including cranes and trucks. Daikyo also diversified into real estate around 20 year ago and has seen growth in that sphere, but it’s primary area of business remains crane rental, where it has a fleet of 13–700t units and over 100 operators.
The most recent expansion in the joint venture fleet was made in February, when SALIM took delivery of two new Liebherr HS895 HD cranes. The two units of the 200t-capacity duty cycle crane were delivered to SALIM in a handover ceremony at its Dubai premises graced by Sekiguchi Noboru, Consul General of Japan in Dubai. The new units come after SALIM’s decision in 2019 to enter the niche market of duty cycle operation and dynamic compaction, a technique used to increase soil density by dropping a heavy weight repeatedly from different heights on the ground. With dynamic compaction requiring duty cycle cranes, SALIM initially boght two new Liebherr HS8130.1 crane models last February. These two 130t capacity models are now working on a national Infrastructure project in the UAE.
With the units finding quick success in the dynamic compaction market owing to high crane utilisation in 2020, SALIM ordered a further two units with Liebherr in November last year, this time opting for higher lifting capacities in the form of the Liebherr HS895 HD 200t models, which were delivered in February in the ceremony at SALIM’s premises. Apart from the Japanese consul general, the function also saw dignitaries, senior officials and representatives from the Japan External Trade Organisation in Dubai, Japan Bank (DIFC), Liebherr Middle East, Liebherr Austria and Daikyo.
“Some ground improvement and land reclamation projects require specialised, duty cycle cranes for dynamic compaction and dynamic replacement. With Liebherr duty cycle cranes, we can improve the density
and bearing capacity of the soil up to depths of 15m by these techniques, and the cranes can handle a high number of blows, typically 600 blows in a 10-hour shift. Only a few manufacturers make such cranes, and Liebherr was our first choice because the company has set the industry benchmark with regard to product development and customer support,” says Sajil Salim, president and CEO, Salim Equipment Rental.
Kurt Rudigier, area sales manager, crawler cranes and foundation equipment, Liebherr-Werk Nenzing, adds: “Duty cycle crawler cranes are among Liebherr’s best-selling equipment in the Middle East, and we’ve sold over 200 such cranes in this region. This deal is special because Salim Equipment Rental placed the order for their first two duty-cycle cranes last year during one of the most challenging market conditions in recent years, when business owners were dealing with uncertainty. Despite the circumstances, Salim Equipment Rental went ahead with the deal, and we delivered the machines in August 2020. Following the second order, Liebherr manufactured the cranes in Austria and delivered them within three months. We celebrate this success story during the pandemic and the valuable partner we found in Salim.”
Explaining SALIM’s investment in the cranes, Salim adds: “Our investments in four duty cycle cranes in less than a year is a major step for us and an unusual move in our industry because they happened at the peak of the pandemic. Fortunately, the dynamic compaction market was resilient during the last year, and we expect our four duty cycle cranes to be busy on soil improvement sites and duty cycle jobs throughout 2021. We see opportunity for significant growth in the next few years from ground improvement and duty cycle jobs related to infrastructure projects in the MENA region. Dynamic compaction is a ‘high demand – high risk’ market that requires the full dedication of our resources, including a team of highly skilled operators, maintenance staff and Liebherr’s aftersales support. As there are few players with the technical competency required for such jobs, we also have the opportunity to expand globally.
“Salim Equipment Rental is built on the four principles of quality, commitment, integrity and professionalism. At our core, we are a Japanese company with similar work ethic as Daikyo Kenki. It’s interesting how we entered into a formal partnership after several years of business dealings. The joint venture was a natural progression for both us and Daikyo Kenki, but it happened only in 2015 after a decade-long process of winning each other’s trust, a characteristic highly valued by Japanese companies.”
Ryuichi Uchida, president and CEO, Daikyo Kenki, adds: “Having established ourselves in Japan’s crane rental business, we had aspirations to expand globally. In 2005, I began exploring opportunities in the Middle East to establish a trading business, which led to my UAE visit and introduction to Sajil and his father. I was very impressed with their commitment to the crane industry and understanding of the local market and I entered into a trading partnership with them in 2005. Within 10 years, our successful business relationship evolved into our crane rental joint venture.”
