19
WORLD RENTAL REPORT
IRN SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2013
SOUTH AFRICA
“The South Africa economy is a bit patchy”, says
George Landsberg, managing director of Goscor
Hi-Reach, a South African distributor of aerial
platforms and telehandlers that also has sister
company that rents platforms, “Our economy tracks
Europe less than the US, so we are going through
some of the pain that you find in Europe as well.”
One important element of that economic picture
is a devaluation of the Rand against the US Dollar,
which is making it more expensive for South African
rental companies to import US made products,
which is significant in an access market where
the two biggest suppliers, Terex AWP and JLG, are
US-based.
“There has been quite an increase in import costs
for rental companies – the bulk of equipment is
imported”, he says. Goscor Hi-Reach, which is part
of the well-established Goscor Group, is dealer for
Terex AWP’s Genie machines.
Mr Landsberg says there are particular parts
of the rental industry under strain, such as the
earthmoving sector, where work on two major power
projects –the R100 billion (€7.4 billion) Medupi Power
Station in Limpopo province and the R150 billion (€11
billion) Kusile Power Station in Mpumalanga – is now
scaling down.
“Rental companies involved in the civil works were
very busy, up to a point, but now it’s very quiet”, he
says, “For people in the small plant business, they
are doing OK, but not great.”
Performing a little better is the aerial platform
sector, says Mr Landsberg; “Overall we’re not in
a purple patch for rental, but the eastern Cape
is picking up nicely, and aerial rentals to the two
power plants is doing OK.” Work at the Medupi and
Kusile sites will continue for three or four years.
In the Northern Cape, meanwhile, Mr Landsberg
highlights the growth of the solar and wind energy
sectors. However, South Africa has still to see a
significant investment in large truck mounted
aerial platforms to help construct and maintain the
turbines, although “that will change”, he says.
The mining market has long been an important
one for South Africa, but Mr Landsberg says that
sector is “very quiet, and it is normally an industry
where you get a lot of work. Platinum and gold
prices have come down, imports are expensive, and
we’re not seeing any new mines being developed, if
anything there has been some mothballing of sites.”
Goscor’s own aerials rental business is still
managing to expand, with a fleet of 400 machines
assembled in little over 20 months and three
locations in Durban, Cape Town and Gauteng (the
province that includes both Johannesburg and
Pretoria).
“It’s really now starting to grow”, says Mr
Landsberg, who founded Johnson Access in South
Africa before selling it and moving into the Goscor
group, “we’re adding around 20 units a month.”
There are still relatively few major access rental
fleets in South Africa, but Mr Landsberg has seen
the arrival of a number of small players with small
fleets, often starting with used equipment. “In time
the dynamic will change, but in the short term it is
putting pressure on pricing.”
■
Construction of the new Medupi power
station brought lots of work for rental
companies in South Africa.
George Landsberg, managing director of Goscor Hi-Reach.
BENELUX/CENTRAL EUROPE
Andries Schouten has a good view of the Benelux and central European rental market by virtue of his
position as managing director of HDW Nederland and Gunco, two sales and rental businesses within TVH
Rental Equipment, the rental business of Belgian parts specialist TVH, which also now includes Mateco in
Germany.
Gunco rents aerial platforms throughout the Benelux and is sales dealer for JLG in Belgium and
Luxembourg, while HDW sells a wide range of aerial platform and telehandlers in 17 European countries,
including the Benelux region and eastern Europe (and represents Terex AWP/Genie in the Netherlands and
eastern Europe).
Mr Schouten says his feeling is that Belgium is currently doing slightly better than the Netherlands;
“From May last year is slowed down in the Netherlands. Now 2013 is at the same level – it’s not good. There
aren’t many new projects, and when there are, everybody jumps on them.” One consequence has been
lower rental prices in the Netherlands compared to Belgium, where there are fewer big rental players in
the access market.
He says Gunco benefits from being able to sell used machines as well as rent, and also from the strength
of its parent company TVH; “If we were only dong rental, then we could be struggling. That has always
been part of the strategy.”
Mr Schouten is, however, encouraged by a general feeling in the market “that we have reached the
bottom and are slowly going up. For the next one and a half years it will still be a challenging market –
because the market dropped the prices, and it will take a long time to get the prices back up.”
HDW’s sales and leasing activities in eastern Europe are an important part of its business, and here Mr
Schouten offers a summary picture; “the Czech Republic is doing OK for us, Poland is also doing OK, with
good utilisation, but with seriously lower prices than two or three years ago. Poland peaked in 2011 and at
the start of 2012, and it’s rather stable now.
“Romania and Hungary went very well when they joined the EU, but the market is still very, very slow. It’s
a huge struggle – prices are low, payment behaviour is terrible, and it is a difficult place to rent, with long
distances to travel and poor road conditions.”
Of Germany, where TVH owns Mateco, Mr Schouten is more upbeat; “In general it’s a lot more positive
than most European countries – still quite positive growth.” There was a slow start to the year – which was
weather impacted - but now has returned to a better level.
In terms of investment in the fleet this year, Mr Schouten says that around €50 million will be spent on
the Gunco, HDW and Mateco fleets, of which around 90% will be for replacement. Markets that will see
their fleets growing will include Poland, Hungary, Belgium and Romania, while the group’s operations in
the Netherlands and Germany will operate stable fleet sizes.
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