Capital equipment manufacturer Bell Equipment (Bell) will in March launch a new addition to its product portfolio in Las Vegas, in the US.

Bell CEO Leon Goosen said on Monday that the “small truck of less than 30 t gross vehicle mass" would be manufactured at Bell’s Richards Bay plant, in KwaZulu-Natal.

The extreme off-road truck will largely be aimed at the US market, for use in marshes and swamps often encountered in the oil industry.

“We hope this will become a significant export product for us,” noted Goosen.

It will be the first time that Bell – an articulated dump truck (ADT) specialist – enters the market for smaller trucks.

Goosen noted that Bell was also developing “a few other products”, as it worked to leverage its intellectual property.

“We want to enlarge our portfolio of original equipment. If we want to grow internationally, we need to grow our intellectual property. We want to enter the large export markets with more of our own products.

“This will take time, and we would probably only see something happening three years from now. We have to make sure we test these products properly.
“Luckily South Africa is a perfect laboratory for such testing.”

The addition of the small truck to the Richards Bay plant line-up should help production volumes as it seems unlikely that Bell will produce the Russian truck brand Kamaz at the facility, as originally envisaged.

This was owing to insufficient demand in the struggling domestic economy, he noted.

Bell was, however, on a global road show to promote the products of its new acquisition, Matriarch Equipment, Goosen added.

Matriarch, based in KwaZulu-Natal, designs and manufactures a range of materials-handling products used predominantly in the forestry and sugar industries across local and international territories.

“We definitely want to leverage this product line-up,” said Goosen.

Bell on Monday reported a 8.4% increase in revenue, to R4-billion. for the six months ended June 30, compared with the same period last year.

Profit increased by 14.4%, to R152.3-million.

Goosen said the company was pleased to report “reasonable results” for the period, despite tough operating and economic conditions in many of the markets in which Bell operated.

“The strong and diversified position that we occupy globally has been advantageous in countering the more difficult operating geographies.”

The group experienced modest growth in revenue in markets other than South Africa, were the economy was struggling.

Global demand was not as strong as anticipated, Goosen explained, which had led to higher than planned inventory and debt levels and a resultant increase in financing costs.

Production volumes have been decreased in line with expected demand.

North America remained a key area for growth for Bell, with its products well accepted in that market.

South America is currently still a small market, while the South East Asia and Oceania markets continue to show growth.

South Africa remains a primary market for the group, where the full product and service line is positioned for what is hoped to be an eventual market recovery.

“During the period under review the South African economy remained weak and we saw trading conditions deteriorate further on the back of prolonged economic uncertainty and a lack of much anticipated economic stimulus,” said Goosen.

He said while government agencies were talking about spending money, talk was cheap. Infrastructure projects, should they realise, would take time to filter down to equipment acquisitions.

Looking ahead, Goosen said there remained concerns about the Southern African market, while slowing growth was expected in Europe. Russia was showing continued recovery, and North America was experiencing positive growth. Australia’s recovery was also expected to slow.