Heavy Equipment Industry News Updates

Giant Komatsu D575A dozer

CALIFORNIA

Housing outlook takes a grim turn
LOS ANGELES --Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, sank to an all-time low Tuesday as a major homebuilder offered a grim outlook for the industry and the Bush administration signaled it is growing more concerned about rising mortgage defaults.

County vehicle fleet to be streamlinedCentralization could also save $1.6 million this year
The Yolo County Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted 4-1 in favor of a major reorganization of how the county obtains and pays for its vehicles and heavy equipment - changes that could save the county about $1.6 million this year, supporters estimate.

The reorganization plan would establish a centralized fleet service that would control, maintain and purchase all county vehicles and equipment and would be accountable to the Board...
...In order to trim the fat among department vehicles, the plan recommends establishing a minimum monthly usage requirement of 400 miles for all vehicles that don't fall under the "heavy vehicle" category, which includes vehicles such as large trucks, tractors, buses, and forklifts. Those vehicles would have a minimum usage requirement of 10 hours per month, Groom said...

COLORADO

Public senses an economy going south
SEDALIA, COLO. -- The numbers stopped adding up some time ago, and every month, Shane Covelli gets angrier.
He sells heavy equipment on commission, and construction firms aren't buying. Covelli has sold his Corvette, stopped taking his wife out to dinner, pulled his son from the ski team. He has withdrawn nearly $50,000 from his retirement accounts and started taking extra work, laying carpet and pouring concrete evenings and weekends. Still, he owes more than he earns, and he can't seem to fix it...

SOUTH CAROLINA
Police probe heavy equipment thefts
Conway police are investigating reports of at least three construction vehicles being stolen since last month, according to a police statement released today.
Between Dec. 7 and Dec. 10, someone stole a backhoe from the Cratbtree Commons construction site off El Bethel Road and a front-end loader was reported stolen from the same site between Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, the statement reads.

ILLINOIS
HEAVY EQUIPMENT - Cat adds computerized tracking, management to all machines

PEORIA, Illinois - CATERPILLAR now includes as standard equipment its computerized EquipmentManager and Product Link, the company's remote asset management solution. The system will be installed in all mining and industrial machines sold in Canada and the United States.

Caterpillar will phase in EquipmentManager/Product Link beginning with wheeled hydraulic excavators and articulated trucks. The system comes with a three-year subscription to Asset Watch, the remote asset management portion of EquipmentManager. The system types of machines will be phased in throughout 2008 on other types of equipment.
EquipmentManager is a secure, web-based application that uses key indicators from equipment such as hours, location and diagnostic codes. Combined with powerful tools such as mapping, maintenance scheduling and troubleshooting instructions, EquipmentManager quickly sorts through machine data to identify events that require attention, and delivers information in a meaningful and actionable manner.

NEW YORK
Sector Snap: Heavy EquipmentShares of a Variety of Heavy Equipment Companies Tumble on Concerns About Financial Outlooks

(Associated Press) - Shares of a variety of heavy equipment companies fell Wednesday on worries that current earnings expectations for them may be overly optimistic.
Baird's Robert F. McCarthy said that in light of expectations of slower economic growth and lower gross domestic product growth, average analyst estimates for most machinery and diversified manufacturing stocks are too high.

"Historically, these stocks generally underperform stock market averages when economic growth is moderating or in recession," McCarthy wrote in a note to investors.
"Given our cautious outlook for growth in the developed economies, we believe new entry points require deeply discounted valuations."
McCarthy lowered his financial outlooks for companies across the sector...

Tractors on the road - are they accidents waiting to happen?

UK
More than 900 tractors, telehandlers and other self-propelled farm machines are likely to be involved in road accidents this year, not to mention a further 1000 cars, vans, motorbikes and trucks.

These startling figures come from a Department for Transport (DfT) study which also estimates that on average eight farmers and 11 other road users will die each year as a result of such accidents.

On top of that, 1200 casualties will be caused, resulting in more than 5000 working days being lost. In fact the total cost to the agricultural industry, says NFU Mutual, is £60m.

HAWAII, USA

National Guard Soldiers Ready To Clean Maui
KALAELOA (KHNL) -- Soldiers make the final inspections on two dozen pieces of heavy equipment before it's all loaded onto the Superferry, and sails to Maui on Monday.
Lt. Colonel Moses Kaoiwi anticipates, "There's a lot of major work that needs to be done."
The story made national headlines in early December after high winds and heavy rains pummeled the state. Maui took the brunt, with over 100 properties damaged. But soldiers say they're not intimidated.

Superferry helps Hawaii National Guard
HONOLULU (AP) _ The Hawaii National Guard shipped 24 pieces of heavy equipment -- including bulldozers and five-ton dump trucks -- from Oahu to Maui today aboard the Hawaii Superferry.

Twenty members of the 29th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, Company A, also made the trip. They're joining 29 Guard members on the Valley Island in an operation to clear away debris left by recent stormy weather...


CALIFORNIA, USA

California Construction Forecast 2008
It may not become the "perfect storm" but three "bad weather fronts" are headed toward California's construction industry in 2008 and beyond. Bad enough to go into storm protection mode...

In 2007, California construction employment averaged an estimated 924,200, down 15,200 (1.6 percent) from 2006 and down 23,900 (2.5 percent ) from the 948,100-employment peak posted in the month of February 2006 (seasonally adjusted). In 2008, construction employment is forecast at 901,300, down 22,900 (2.5 percent) from 2007...


ALASKA, USA

Tundra-Cat is no child's toyHuge vehicle is gentle on Arctic environment
WASILLA, Alaska – With tires 5½ feet tall, the Tundra-Cat could be considered an Alaska-sized toy for big boys. That would be a mistake. The vehicle designed for use in the oil fields – looking a lot like a monster truck – has a tender touch when it comes to the delicate Arctic tundra. Its huge tires, at 5 pounds of pressure per square inch, do less damage than a golf cart, said Mark Tope, the man who came up with the Tundra-Cat after having a brainstorm a couple of years ago while watching a monster truck show at 1 a.m. Tope said he recalls the moderator saying, “Man, they have a big footprint.”...


FLORIDA, USA

Fugitive sought following theft of equipment
Authorities are asking the public to help them find a local man suspected of stealing several pieces of heavy equipment...


NEW YORK, USA

Sector Snap: Manufacturing Stocks Fall
Shares of many manufacturers tumbled Wednesday, following a report indicating that the U.S. manufacturing economy unexpectedly contracted in December.
...Manufacturers of construction and other heavy equipment also posted losses. Deere & Co., one of the world's largest makers of farm equipment, dropped $3.11, or 3.3 percent, to $90.01, but earlier hit a 52-week high of $94.01. Caterpillar Inc. shares fell $2.06, or 2.8 percent, to $70.50, while Manitowoc Co. dropped $1.60, or 3.3 percent, to $47.23. Terex Inc. shares fell $2.58, or 3.9 percent, to $62.99.


AUSTRALIA

Isolated residents just wait for peak
FLOODING is a way of life for residents of the small communities along the large rivers in northern NSW, and last night they were just watching and waiting. The State Emergency Service yesterday offered to help evacuate residents of the isolated towns of Coraki and Woodburn but the offers were politely rejected.
...Ms Moyle said the residents of Coraki had already shifted everything they could above the expected flood peak and SES volunteers spent yesterday afternoon assisting them to move motor vehicles and other heavy equipment to high ground...

Excavator Juggling. They should have tried this outside without a roof :)

UNITED STATES
Bulldozers blaze the way
There was no time to waste. Six coal miners were trapped deep underground. Getting them fresh air was imperative. That required boring holes into Crandall Canyon mine from the top of East Mountain, nearly 1,900 feet overhead. But before a heavy-duty drill rig could be brought in, a mile-long access road had to be cut across the mountaintop - at night, through two dense stretches of forest and along ridges with slopes that plummeted precipitously, the dim light of a waning moon often obscuring the line between level ground and open air...

DeLand increasing biofuel use in heavy equipment
DELAND -- The city of DeLand's motor pool is becoming a green fleet -- well, almost.
In late November, the city followed the suggestion of Public Works Director Marvin Williams and began using a 5-percent mixture of soybean oil to fuel heavy equipment vehicles, such as fire trucks. The mixture is touted as a way to run cleaner machines and help reduce dependence on foreign oil.

PHILIPPINES
Rebels burn down heavy equipment
NEW People's Army guerrillas burned two heavy equipment involved in the construction of market roads and a bunker house in San Francisco town in Quezon for the refusal of the town mayor who owns the equipment to pay "revolutionary taxes."...
"Said heavy equipment are being used to construct market roads of said place and owned by Mayor Nani C. Tan, mayor of San Francisco, Quezon. Said incident was a result of tan's refusal to give in to demands," said Cabangbang.

Heavy rains brings floods, landslides to Southern Leyte
MAASIN CITY, Philippines--A nine-year-old girl drowned in a flashflood and three Southern Leyte towns and a highway in this city were hit by landslides following two straight days of heavy rains on Wednesday and Thursday, local authorities said Friday...
...DPWH-Southern Leyte’s assistant district engineer, Lino Gonzalez, said heavy equipment was dispatched immediately to clear the roads of mud and debris.

INDIA
MCD wakes up to piling solid waste
As the year turns, there is some good news. On Monday, MCD mayor Arti Mehra announced the purchase of 17 new heavy earth moving machines for the better management of solid waste at sanitary landfill sites...
...For the first time, MCD has entered into a contract with the manufacturer for the maintenance of the equipment. "The manufacturer will provide the necessary parts and services required for maintenance while we will bear the cost of fuel and lubricants," said Mehra. According to officials, the contract for the heavy equipment is for six years...