{"id":745,"date":"2016-04-17T22:20:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minutes.machine.market\/?p=745"},"modified":"2016-04-17T22:20:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T22:20:11","slug":"record-demand-at-bauma-despite-mining-malaise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/machine.market\/blog\/record-demand-at-bauma-despite-mining-malaise\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Record demand’ at Bauma despite mining malaise"},"content":{"rendered":"

The commodities supercycle may be over, and mining still in the dumps, but that didn’t stop\u00a0half a million visitors from flooding\u00a0the sprawling grounds of the Bauma 2016 trade fair last week.<\/p>\n

As the six-day trade show, the largest in the world, came to a close on Sunday, organizers reckoned around 580,000 visitors streamed through the gates of the fair, located on the site of the old Munich airport \u2013 a rise of over nine percent compared to the last Bauma three years ago. Show organizer Messe M\u00fcnchen GmbH said after Germany,\u00a0the top ten countries of origin among the visitors were Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Netherlands, UK, Sweden, the Russian Federation, Poland and the Czech Republic.<\/p>\n

\"Komatsu\u2019s<\/p>\n

Komatsu\u2019s PC7000 in action. Photo courtesy of Messe Munchen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A total of 3,423 exhibitors\u20141,263 from Germany and 2,160 from abroad\u2014from 58 countries presented their products, developments and innovations on a record 605,000 square meters of exhibition space. Exhibitors from outside Germany accounted for 63 percent of the total\u2014higher than ever before, according to a press release from Messe Munchen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response from the participants this year was amazing. The visitors at Bauma always come looking to invest, but this year the exhibitors\u2019 order books filled up much faster than expected. Many exhibitors are talking about a record level of demand at bauma 2016. And that is an extremely positive sign in this current uncertain climate,\u201d said\u00a0Messe M\u00fcnchen Chairman & CEO Klaus Dittrich.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Aerial view of Bauma 2016. Photo courtesy of Messe Munchen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Liebherr, the Switzerland-based manufacturer of heavy equipment including the large class of mining haul trucks and excavators, had an impressive outdoor booth which included a sleek, contemporary office building that took five months to assemble. The company’s 385-tonne T264 mining truck was a hit among visitors many of whom posed for photos in front of it. The truck bed even served as the playing field for a ping pong grudge match between Germany and Austria. The\u00a0\u201cMatch in the Mining Truck\u201d<\/a> resulted in the Germans exacting revenge on the Austrians after last year’s defeat at the 2015 European championship final. Liebherr was also showcasing its new 200-tonne excavator, the R 9200. The machine 12.5-cubic-metre bucket is the biggest in its class and is designed to match mining trucks with payloads of up to 140 tonnes. The Komatsu PC7000 mining shovel was also one of the most popular and impressive machines to witness up close.<\/p>\n

The visitors at Bauma always come looking to invest, but this year the exhibitors\u2019 order books filled up much faster than expected.<\/q><\/p>\n

\u201cBauma 2016 was a tremendous success for Liebherr. We received many orders from a wide variety of different markets. In some segments our expectations were even exceeded,\u201d\u00a0Stefan Heissler, a member of the Board of Directors of Liebherr-International AG, told Messe M\u00fcnchen.\u00a0Erwin Schneller, managing director of SBM Minerals, reported that the company’s booth received visitors “from Chile to Canada, from China to Russia, from Africa to Norway. My personal highlight was that we signed up some unexpected sales at the show.”<\/p>\n

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Visitors during a demonstration at the Liebherr booth. Photo courtesy of Messe Munchen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The upbeat reports from Bauma come despite some dismal numbers from mining suppliers and equipment manufacturers, including Caterpillar and Joy Global (NYSE:JOY). The latter’s sales fell by 25 percent<\/a> in the first quarter, and the Wisconsin-based equipment maker showed\u00a0a net loss of $40.2 million compared with a $30.5-million profit in the year-ago quarter. Sales at Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), the world largest heavy equipment manufacturer, are down by over $20-billion from a peak four years ago, and Cat said last September\u00a0it plans to cut up to\u00a010,000 jobs in a three-year restructuring program. Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar expects another 10% decline in revenue in 2016 to around $42 billion, but executives still can’t predict a bottom for the industry, saying in January that they\u00a0can’t see any signs of improvement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, Bauma was not the occcasion to dwell on the negative, and a number of new mining products were rolled out. These included:<\/p>\n