Terex unveil first RT 555-1 assembled in Brazil

While the RT 555 Progress is the first crane to be assembled at this facility, Terex Cranes president, Kevin Bradley, says the manufacturer plans to expand its product offering across crane product lines opportunistically, dependent on current local market demands. Three units of the new crane have already been sold.

Each RT 555 Progress is brought into Brazil in 'Complete Knock Down' (CKD) kits before being put together at the Cachoeirinha plant's assembly line, which is effectively a reproduction of Terex's North American assembly line in Waverley.

The facility is currently operating at a production capacity of one RT 555 Progress per week however Terex also plans to establish networks of accredited local parts suppliers, which could reduce assembly times along with the amount of import tax paid on components imported into Brazil.

Terex Corporation president for developing markets and strategic accounts, Steve Filipov, said: "Latin America is a key region for our company's global growth. We are coming closer and closer to our customers with a strong presence in manufacturing, distribution and product support at the local level."

Terex's facility in Cachoeirinha, Porto Allegre has been established for around 20 years and is also home to Terex Construction production lines for products such as asphalt plant and pavers.

Filipov continued: "Our global strategy is to accelerate growth in developing markets, including Latin America, leveraging the infrastructure already established by Demag Cranes AG, whose integration into Terex is now being rapidly implemented following the Domination and Profit and Loss Transfer Agreement announced in April."

This 'leveraging' includes not only an extension to an existing Brazilian Terex facility to include a parts warehouse in Sao Paulo that will hold 20,000 items of stock but also the retraining of Brazilian Demag Cranes AG engineers on mobile crane products.

Speaking at a press conference, Bradley commented: "The crane market in Brazil is in an upswing. We know we need a broad coverage of service to make sure we take the risk out of buying a Terex crane for our local customers."

He also noted that despite a small market for Terex products in Central America, Terex's port equipment business (Demag Cranes AG) is "well positioned on a couple of tenders on the port equipment side" for the region, with good opportunities for strong growth.