At Atlas Copco’s annual press lunch in London yesterday Björn Rosengren, Senior Executive Vice President, Construction and Mining Technique (CMT), reported that business was back to 2008 levels and lead times were stretching out again, mainly thanks to mining industry demand. He commented that it had been a very fast recovery following the global financial crisis. Emerging markets have played a big role in this comeback, particularly the dramatic urbanisation in China that is driving minerals demand.
Atlas Copco’s presence in growth markets is very important and is why Rosengren is now based out of Shanghai. CMT Asia has grown 522% in the last 10 years, and China alone has grown 600%. Developing the service business has also been very instrumental in the recovery, though Chinese mining groups still lag behind in terms of their relative spending on service/maintenance versus other major mining markets.
He has spent a lot of time travelling in China over the recent months and reports that like many parts of the mining world, some major Chinese open pits are preparing to go underground and that the country’s mining industry is suffering from falling grades and the need to develop mines in ever more remote places. There are also needs for efficiency improvements and raising safety and environmental standards. There is the will and the intent to purchase the mining equipment required to achieve these goals.
He noted that the ‘high end’ China mining equipment market is primarily being served by the international companies. The major competition comes in the ‘mid range’ equipment where international companies are fighting with Chinese suppliers for the business. Rosengren confirms the need to improve the company’s position in the mid range market in China which, he says, requires local design, development and manufacture. To achieve this there is a need to find good skills in the local personnel market. One Atlas Cocpo goal for the future is “making China our home market,” he explained. Atlas Copco already manufactures products in China specifically for the Chinese market – these include the D55 crawler drill plus the CDM75E, CDM75D and CDM30 blasthole drills.
New Atlas Copco products that will be featured on this site over the comining days will include the Secoroc PARD system, designed to boost rotary drilling performance by combining the best of DTH and Rotary drilling technology. There is also the Atlas Copco Secoroc Omega sealed bearing tricone drill bit representing a technological leap forward over standard air bearing roller cone bits.
The Boomer XE4 C is a new four-boom drill rig developed by Atlas Copco in co-operation with Nordic tunneling contractor, Veidekke. There will also be further examination of Atlas Copco entering the mobile crushing and screening business through the acquisition of Hartl Anlagenbau GmbH, Austria, a company that manufactures and sells mobile crushers and screeners.
