Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia

CMA Contracting, an important major customer of Hitachi, is market leader for industrial demolition, decommissioning, decontamination, site clearance and remediation services in Australia. The publicly listed Contracting and Metal Recycling group operates from 32 bases across Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, PNG and the USA and employs in excess of 600 staff plus a large fleet of specialised equipment.

The company completed the largest industrial demolition project ever in Australia which required heavy duty excavators to process in excess of 100,000 tonnes of recyclable scrap metal. Traditionally, the company has a strong foothold in the resource sector industry but is also heavily engaged in the removal of chemical plants, steel mills, power stations, bridges and marine facilities.

This year saw CMA Contracting place a multiple machine order including a range of medium to large sized Zaxis-3 Hydraulic Excavators.

We conducted an interview with National Operations Manager Mr. Simon Gill who gave us an awesome insight into the decision process and factors leading up to the substantial orders. The interview was as follows:

Q. What were the main factors in your decision to purchase multiple Hitachi’s over other brands?

A. “Main factors under consideration were the suitability to our industry - heavy industrial demolition work on remote sites, support Australia wide, and the GPS tracking. Over the past 5 years we have worked in Gove, NT, throughout the Pilbara, Mt. Isa, Blackwater, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Kalgoorlie etc. As such we needed a supplier that could not only support us Australia wide, but adapt their service to account for our constantly changing work locations. Reliable / robust machines were an absolute must.”

Q. How many other brands were in the running?

A. “We assessed 8 major brands, and had 8 criteria that we scored each brand.”

Q. In a couple of sentences how would you describe the Hitachi product?

A. “Hitachi produces well made reliable excavators. But their real edge lies in the support and monitoring they provide. No matter where we are in Australia we can download data from our machines to ensure they are running at optimum capacity. When our machines need servicing, Hitachi rings us. One of the hardest parts of our job is to obtain reliable accurate information regarding the performance of our machines in remote locations. Hitachi’s e-Service puts that information at our finger tips.”

Q. Any information on possible initial applications of the first machines?

A. “Over the past 8 months the 10 excavators we have taken delivery of have commenced work immediately on remote mine sites. Our Newman Project in the Pilbara utilised 3x ZX350’s, and 1x ZX470. Our Blackwater project utilised 2x ZX350‘s and 1 x ZX470, and our Mt Isa Project utilised 2x ZX350. Our ZX350 and ZX470’s are fitted with various attachments such as 2nd member shears, heavy duty grapples, hammers, buckets and magnets.”

Q. If the opportunity arose would you consider purchasing Hitachi again?

A. “We would absolutely consider Hitachi for future purchases. We would like to think we have now started down the road of a long term relationship with Hitachi. We would now like to grow our relationship with them.”

Hitachi offers a wide variety of application products and attachments with proven controllability and versatility to suit varied job requirements. Choosing the right product for the right use can greatly increase job efficiency and productivity.

Contact your local Hitachi Construction Machinery (Australia) Pty Ltd branch for information on attachments and industry specific applications.

(A special thanks to CMA Contractors, Mr. Simon Gill and Hitachi’s Allan Lewis for your generous contributions to this article by Vaughan Kidd)

*For more information, please contact us (Hitachi Construction Machinery Australia Pty Ltd.)
*Duplicate of articles shown is prohibited without permission.
*The machines may not meet the regulations depending on countries.

Send Us an E-mail