Austin Engineering gains India market foothold

ASX-listed Austin Engineering is hoping to leverage “vastly improved business access and trade opportunity with India” to expand deliveries of its customised haul truck trays into the country’s huge mining industry.

Austin said this week it had sold its first truck trays to an Indian iron ore producer with a requirement for up to 165 trays at its various iron ore and coal mines. There was no commitment at this stage from the customer for more orders.

The initial trays would be used to demonstrate productivity and maintenance benefits of the lightweight Austin trays, produced at its Batam plant in Indonesia.

The ‘India’ version of Austin’s Ultima tray was developed on the back of nine months of engineering work to deliver an estimated additional 66,000 tonnes a year of ore per truck. The trays, designed for use without steel wear liners, would require less maintenance to replace the liners. Austin also expects the trays to reduce truck fuel use and tyre wear.

It will use its Mainetrack condition monitoring software to monitor the performance of its trays and relevant wear rates. Austin added the digital wear monitoring capability through its 2022 acquisition of Australian company Mainetec.

“We are very excited to have this entry point into India as we continue to broaden our customer network across the Asia Pacific region,” Austin CEO David Singleton said.

“India is the world’s third largest iron ore producer and we are pleased to have secured an order with one of the country’s major miners.

“It presents an important opportunity for Austin to market its customised equipment and the potential advantages it could bring the country’s iron ore sector.

“We also see India as a logical market expansion opportunity given our existing experience in the Australian iron ore sector.

“The Australian Government has vastly improved business access and trade opportunity with India through an elimination, reduction or phase out of tariffs, and we see a long-term future potential for Austin in this market.”

 

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