ITP MEDIA GROUP / BUSINESS JANUARY 2023 • VOLUME 17, ISSUE 01 THE REALITY BEHIND SWITCHING TO ALTERNATIVE FUELS, AND THE MASSIVE OPPORTUNITIES IT PRESENTS FOR THE SECTOR MAKING THE SWITCH1325+250+700+ 350+450+ 20+ Projects CranesAWP’sClientsYears Aerial Work Platform Cranes Spider Cranes JOHNSON ARABIA is a Mobile Crane and Aerial Work Platforms (AWP) rental provider in the Middle East which offers cost-efficient and versatile lift engineering solutions to the petrochemical, civil engineering, construction, industrial, utilities, aviation, marine and other industries and clients. Training Center www.Johnsonarabia.com Info@Johnsonarabia.com Dubai, UAE Dubai Industrial City, Saih Shuaib-3 P.O. Box 71240 Tel: +971 4 584 7551 Tel: 800-LIFTING : 052-LIFTING Mascat Oman Barka P.O. Box 320 Postal Code 667 Tel:+ 968 2 675 3112 Tel: 800-LIFTS : +971 52-LIFTING Abu Dhabi, UAE Musaffah Industrial Area P.O. Box 34983 Tel: +971 2 550 4988 Tel: 800-LIFTING : 052-LIFTING LENDING A HAND AND DOING THE HEAVY LIFTING FOR YOU Skilled WokforceCONTENTS 03 PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023 6 Electrifi cation Mercedes-Benz plans to electrify its production 20 Automechanika review We review Automechanika Dubai 32 Market insight The changing shape of the UAE commercial vehicles market JANUARY 2023 VOLUME 17 • ISSUE 01 26 Cover story The reality for alternative fuels in the sector, and the challenges it will have to overcome 10 Big 5 Heavy Al-Bahar showcases its latest innovations at Big 5 Heavy 12 Transportation and mobility We revisit the topic of autonomous vehicles 8 Salim Equipment Trading The company delivers upgraded accelerated compaction machineEDITOR’S LETTER 04 PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023 T he new year is upon us, and we’re looking ahead to a bright future for the plant, machinery, and vehicles segment, as new projects are announced and the region takes on transformation head on. In the aft ermath of major industry events earlier this year, we’ve seen the industry’s innovation on display, and that energy is carrying well into 2023. Through our cover story this month, we explore alternative fuels, and how heavy equipment can move from fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives, as part of the wider push to net zero carbon emissions. Propane, hydrogen, and electric vehicles are all options to replace current fuels, but obstacles remain in the push for cleaner fuels for heavy equipment. In our transportation and mobility feature, we revisit an article from our February 2022 edition, looking at the future and the reality of mainstreaming autonomous vehicles, as well as the frameworks already set in place by the UAE government to help make them a realistic possibility. How far have we come since then? We haven’t made much headway. We also take a quick peek at Saudi Intermobility, and what it promises for the kingdom. Finally, Al-Bahar lets us in on its presence at Big 5 Heavy, and how its stand represents the larger movement in the sector. Finally, I’m excited to announce that Plant Machinery Vehicles Middle East will have a new, full-time editor as of next month, and we are very eager to connect him with you, our loyal readers, in a new era for the brand. And with that, I’ll let you get to reading! Enjoy. Carla Sertin Group Editor, B2B Brands ITP Media group THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORT AND MOBILITY PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 444 3000 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, London & Mumbai ITP MEDIA GROUP CEO Ali Akawi Managing Director Alex Reeve Deputy Managing Director Nicky Dawson EDITORIAL Group Editor Carla Sertin ART Art Director Amjad Ayche Designer Tofiq Memon ADVERTISING Commercial Director Vinay Ravindran vinay.ravindran@itp.com +971 4 444 3155 Sales Manager Saloni Panchal saloni.panchal@itp.com +971 4 444 3205 PHOTOGRAPHY Videographers: Muhammad Kaleem, Julius Garcia Photographer: Marwan Elsayed Video Editor: Liju Cheruvathur Sound Engineer: Borys Hridin ITP LIVE General Manager Ahmad Bashour ahmad.bashour@itp.com +971 4 444 3549 PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Production Manager Denny Kollannoor Production Coordinator Manoj Mahadevan Image Editor Emmalyn Robles CIRCULATION Distribution Coordinator Avinash Pereira Circulation Executive Rajesh Pillai MARKETING Director of Awards & Marketing Daniel Fewtrell ITP GROUP CEO Ali Akawi CFO Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. 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Published by and © 2023 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC.For Sponsorship EnquiriesFor Event Enquiries CONTACT Anup Nagpurkar Commercial Director Tel: +971 4 444 3573 M: +971 52 895 0931 E: anup.nagpurkar@itp.com PARUL RANA Conference Producer T: +971 4 444 3226 E: parul.rana@itp.com Analysing Qatar Construction Post FIFA REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN CONSTRUCTIONWEEKLIVE.COM Wednesday 1 st March 2023 Doha, Qatar 01 Gold SponsorSilver SponsorSilver SponsorMERCEDES- BENZ PRODUCTION TO GO 100% ELECTRIC BY 2030 M ercedes-Benz continues to realign its global production network towards electric vehicles as it prepares to go fully electric by the end of the decade – wherever market conditions allow. Mercedes-Benz has retooled its production setup for electric drive systems (batteries, electric drive units and axles) from 2024, following the realigned production setup for electric vehicles based on future vehicle architectures earlier this year. The new setup within the Mercedes- Benz powertrain production network was achieved following constructive discussions with German employee representatives, resulting in agreements to further increase fl exibility and effi ciency at the various locations, paving the way for securing the future of the plants. In line with the implementation of the Mercedes-Benz Business Plan, the company is investing a mid-single-digit billion euro amount in its European powertrain production locations. Jörg Burzer, a Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production and Supply Chain Management, said: “The successful launches of the Mercedes-EQ models in recent months show that our global production network has long since arrived in the electric era. Today, our global powertrain production network is already supplying the Mercedes- EQ vehicle plants with state-of-the-art batteries and electrifi ed axles. “With the new production setup, our powertrain plants are now optimally positioned for the new vehicle architectures from 2024. Sustainable, digital and fl exible, our highly qualifi ed and motivated colleagues around the world are now preparing for the rapid ramp-up of electric drive systems.” The battery plants in Kamenz, Brühl (Untertürkheim – Germany) and Beijing (China) will produce batteries for the new models on the MMA and MB.EA platforms. The establishment of battery assembly at the Kölleda location, which is currently responsible for making conventional and hybridised engines, is also planned – subject to the support from the Thuringian state government. The state government has pledged corresponding support in a letter of intent, paving the way for the plant’s electric transformation process. The Untertürkheim, Sebes (Romania) and Beijing plants will produce electric drive units for the new models on the MMA and MB.EA platforms from 2024 whicle the Untertürkheim plant will double its production capacity for electric drives to one million units. The Mercedes-Benz plants in Hamburg and Untertürkheim (Mettingen section) will remain the German lead plants for the assembly of electric axles and components, MERCEDES-BENZ HAS RETOOLED ITS PRODUCTION SETUP FOR ELECTRIC DRIVE SYSTEMS FROM 2024, FOLLOWING THE REALIGNED PRODUCTION SETUP FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLES 6 ELECTRIFICATION PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023and will supply the production network of Mercedes-Benz body plants with next- generation systems. As announced last year, the Mercedes-Benz plant in Berlin will produce high-performance electric motors for the future AMG.EA platform from the middle of the decade. Commenting on the business’ shift to all-electric, Ergun Lümali, Dep. Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Works Council of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said: “The path towards sustainable, all-electric mobility has begun. As the General Works Council, we are committed to shaping this change, which is both a challenge and an opportunity, in a fair and socially just manner.” He added: “In the realignment of the global production setup with regard to all-electric vehicle architectures, we demanded from the outset: The German locations must play an essential role. In the summer, we were already able to agree on visions of the future for the vehicle plants. It was always clear to us that we wanted to achieve this for the powertrain locations as well. Our persistence has paid off . I am pleased that we have created security and clear prospects for our colleagues in the powertrain production network.” ELECTRIFICATION 7 PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023U AE-based Salim Equipment Trading FZE delivered its fi rst in-house manufactured rapid dynamic compaction (RDC) machine, called the Salim Accelerated Compaction (SAC) unit, which was designed and fabricated at its headquarters in Jebel Ali, Dubai to Wide Horizon. The Salim Accelerated Compaction machine is a union of different components. The excavator is from Hitachi, the fork boom, cradle, and compaction foots were custom- designed and fabricated in Europe, while the hammer is from Junttan - a global benchmark in compaction hammers. For the full automation and control system for the SAC, Salim partnered up with Siemens in Dubai, UAE, as a supplier of choice and international repute, while all the programming was done in-house by the company’s technical team. SALIM EQUIPMENT TRADING DELIVERS FIRST UPGRADED SALIM ACCELERATED COMPACTION MACHINE TO WIDE HORIZON (AL KIFAH HOLDING) Sajil Salim, President and CEO of Salim Equipment Trading, said: “We are the only company in the GCC region that are manufacturing and delivering solutions for a complete RDC unit, so this is a momentous occasion for us to be able to launch the Salim Accelerated Compaction machine to the market successfully.” He also stated that this was a very challenging project, as they are typically a crane rental and trading company that ventured into the dynamic compaction market in 2019 with duty cycle Liebherr crawler cranes. He added: “We have always purchased a ready-made product from a factory, but we realised that Salim Equipment Trading was ready to target this new market segment, and that is how this project came to be. “It was very demanding, in terms of application, programming, and integration, as this is the fi rst time that we were undertaking a project of this magnitude, but as a team, we had all the right people. We are also extremely grateful to the team from Junttan, who have assisted and supported the project.” Commenting on being the fi rst client to order the Salim Accelerated Compaction machine, Eng Abdullah Alafaleq, the vice-chairman of Wide Horizons, said: “The business is booming in Saudi Arabia and projects like NEOM and The Red Sea, require extensive upfront support, which is one of the reasons we considered purchasing a Salim SAC machine. “We were considering multiple options and decided to go with Salim Equipment Trading due to their quality, reliability, and dependability. Moreover, they have delivered the machine on time, and we are pleased with the fi nal fi nished product.” He noted that they are also considering dynamic compaction machines, in addition to the RDCs, as they are bidding for Aramco projects. EQUIPMENT 8 PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023The Saudi-state-owned company considers RDCs a solution to reducing the duration of the project execution and also since it is an approved method for soil improvement in the kingdom, according to Alafaleq. PROJECTS IN THE REGION Salim noted that RDC machines are capable of taking the lead in large infrastructure projects due to its speed of execution and cost-eff ectiveness compared to other alternatives. He pointed out that they are helping with multiple residential projects in Abu Dhabi with Modon and Aldar. Moreover, he said the company is anticipating a busy year, primarily due to key clients in Abu Dhabi. He added: “Abu Dhabi government is promoting multiple residential projects which will require a mix of dynamic compaction machines and RDC machines, but about 50-60% of the requirement will be RDC machines, similar to the one we have just delivered.” Salim Equipment Trading also off ers 9 tonne, 12 tonne and 16 tonne variations of the their SAC models and is now engaging with potential clients interested in building bespoke Salim Accelerated Compaction machines based on specifi c requirements. Salim’s engineering department specialises in custom designing soil compaction machines for any project, and the team of experts accomplishes this by precisely modelling the complex structure based on diff erent components of the machine. We spoke to Salim Equipment Trading’s technical manager Michael George and workshop coordinator Shahrukh Anwar, about the challenges and specifi cs of the Salim Accelerated Compaction machine. George noted that the dynamic compaction technique is used mainly to improve the bearing capacity of the soil, decrease settlement and reduce any voids that may appear, for both natural soil and in reclamation projects, as this is cheaper and environmentally friendly. He added: “Our main part was to build the proper system to match Junttan’s hammer requirements and to deliver in terms of pressure fl ow-rate capacity, structural capacity and to design a heavy-duty boom as a normal boom cannot operate under this much stress and pressure.” Meanwhile, Anwar pointed out the technical aspects: “The machine can produce between 8000 blows to 12,000 blows in a 10-hour shift, approximately, but again, this is based on the customer’s use as well as the drop height, and the average production area can be between 3000 m2 to 5000 m2, in the same 10-hour shift.” He added that the machine has many safety features, including displaying error signals when the hammer is not upright. Junttan’s representatives Mika Huhmo, service manager for Projects and Bauke Galama, senior service engineer, also attended the handover ceremony. They said that Junttan is very interested in presenting itself in the local market; this is how their partnership with Salim came about. “We are also discussing future developments, including providing training and stocking the right spare parts required for the proper maintenance of the machine. We already have an existing agreement with Salim, where they are the exclusive GCC dealers of Junttan hammers and all related products including our world-class piling rigs since February 2021,” Huhmo said. In conclusion, Salim said: “We are very excited about the new product, and now our potential clients also have the opportunity to touch and feel the machine. We know there will be much noise about the machine, and we are already working with multiple enquiries from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.” EQUIPMENT 9 PLANT / MACHINERY / VEHICLESwww.plantmachineryvehicles.comJANUARY 2023Next >