Plant Equipment and Hire January 2019 | Page 13

WORLD NEWS UK rental company Lynch Plant Hire has become the first to take delivery of Komatsu’s new PW118MR-11 wheeled excavator. The excavator is billed as Komatsu’s first fully zero tail-swing wheeled excavator. Lynch says that its compactness, coupled with its lifting performance, make it “the ideal wheeled excavator for working in areas where space is at a premium”. It comes with a three-piece arm and an offset boom, offering a larger working radius. It is also fitted with Komatsu’s Komvision camera system, along with the joystick neutral detection system. Lynch has also opted for height and slew restrictors and a safe load indicator. The first job for the machine is Kier’s M23 smart motorway project in Sussex. Lynch’s head of key accounts, Chris Gill, said that the lack of tail swing made the PW118MR-11 well suited for such projects, working in proximity to live traffic. According to a survey by MarketsAndMarkets, the heavy construction equipment market is projected to witness significant growth in the next few years with the increase in government investments in infrastructure in developing nations and the rise in construction and mining activities. Factors such as rapid urbanisation, increase in investments in the construction industry and demand for infrastructural development from developing economies, increase in population, and increase in level of spending of people around the globe, are driving the growth of the heavy construction equipment market. The major players in the global heavy construction equipment market include Caterpillar Inc. (US), Liebherr AG (Switzerland), Terex (US), Volvo Construction Equipment AB (Sweden), Komatsu (Japan), Doosan (South Korea), Hitachi Machinery Construction (Japan), JCB (UK), Sany (China), and CNH (UK). The earth-moving segment dominated the market in 2015 and is projected to be the fastest- growing equipment type sector www.plantonline.co.za Heavy construction equipment market to exceed USD180.66bn by 2021 The earth-moving segment dominated the market in 2015 and is projected to be the fastest-growing equipment type sector in the next five years. in the next five years, as a result of the rise in demand for infrastructural development. The earth-moving equipment market is driven by the increase in investments in the infrastructure industry to improve facilities in governments and the private sector. This has proven as an opportunity for manufacturers in the earth-moving equipment market. China contributes a major market share in the global as well as Asia-Pacific heavy construction equipment market. Increase in investments in infrastructure, and countries adopting new technologies in residential and non-residential infrastructure, owing to the rise in population and increase in standard of living, are some of the factors driving the heavy construction equipment market in Asia-Pacific — where market growth can be attributed to the presence of numerous leading players in the region. Source: Construction Global NOVEMBER 2018 13