There is always a spot in my heart for the ZL50C

For years, LiuGong has been committed to developing the African market and South Africa is one of our 5 key strategic markets. With superior quality, excellent service and reasonable prices, LiuGong has been recognized by both Chinese and overseas customers. Located at the southernmost end of Africa, South Africa is endowed with vast land and abundant resources. The mining industry has always been one of the major pillars of its national economy, among which, the reserve and output of diamond, platinum, gold, coal, manganese and chrome are the highest in the whole world.

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During the opening ceremony of LiuGong’s subsidiary in South Africa on November 29th, 2011, leaders of the headquarters, employees of the subsidiary and more than 200 customers gathered together, jointly celebrating another milestone of LiuGong’s overseas business. At the ceremony, Chairman of LiuGong Group Co., Ltd., Wang Xiaohua, awarded one of our exclusive golden wheel loader models to one of the distinguished guests.

That man was Henk VD Merwe. He has purchased 78 different models of LiuGong machines, including wheel loaders, excavators, motor graders, rollers, backhoe loaders and skid steer loaders. So far, he is LiuGong South Africa’s biggest customer. His main business is as the contractor of earthworks for the platinum mines of Anglo American, a multinational mining giant. He also operates a highway earthworks business.

Since the founding of LiuGong’s subsidiary in South Africa, LiuGong has continued to provide outstanding support to our dealers and customers there. LiuGong has developed policies and resources for the development and maintenance of key accounts. Leaders from the headquarters and employees of the subsidiary have visited the customers many times and gotten valuable feedback, which drives them to improve product quality and service process, thus establishing long-term cooperation and personal friendship with customers like Mr. Merwe.

Mr. Merwe recently shared his story with us. He is one of 5 brothers, 4 of whom are engaged in mining contracting and highway earthworks, all using LiuGong machines. Their father, Gert was engaged in businesses such as quarry work, machinery maintenance and earthworks contracting in mining areas. Henk and his brothers went in and out of the maintenance workshops since they were little kids and started to help their father with small errands such as passing a wrench and fetching a part. These boys learned all kinds of knowledge of equipment and maintenance very quickly from practice and have been qualified experts ever since.

In 1987, Henk and one of his cooperative partners came to the Crocodile River Platinum Mine, maintaining trucks and other equipment for the mining area. In the same year, Henk bought an early type of crawler wheel loader (International 564) from the second hand market. It had neither an engine nor a gearbox, just a frame. After work, Henk searched for parts everywhere, and assembled and renovated this wheel loader by himself. After completion, the first contract he got was to clean up the excrement of a cattle farm. After running the business for several years, they saved some money and bought a few trucks to run transport for mining areas.

After 2000, Henk started to focus on wheel loaders. By renting or purchasing new machines, he started solely contracting earthworks such as crusher feeding and truck loading. In 2004, he rented two LiuGong ZL50C wheel loaders for mine projects. In the beginning, many managers and technicians at the mine made fun of him, suspecting the quality and performance of these two Chinese machines. Before long, the ZL50C wheel loader was recognized, by both the people at the mine and Henk, for its simple and practical design, robust and durable quality, outstanding work efficiency and productivity as well as favorable original purchasing price and operation cost. In 2005, he purchased two brand-new ZL50C without hesitation, becoming one of the earliest global customers of LiuGong.

Since then, Henk has contracted more and more earthwork projects. With the rapid development of his business, he has purchased more and more LiuGong machines:

In 2004, rented 2 ZL50C wheel loaders;

In 2005, purchased 2 ZL50C wheel loaders;

In 2006, purchased 7 ZL50C wheel loaders;

In 2007, purchased 4 ZL50C wheel loaders and 2 856 wheel loaders;

In 2008, purchased 2 816 wheel loaders, 1 ZL30 wheel loaders, 2 856 wheel loaders, 3 862 wheel loaders, 2 888 wheel loaders, 3 906 excavators, 6 220 excavators, 2 225 excavators, 1 925 excavator, 3 614 roller, 3 418 motor graders and 1422 motor grader.

Henk reeled off all the LiuGong machines purchased from 2004 to 2008, which not only makes us amazed about his clear memory, but also proves his deep love for LiuGong machines. Since 2009, Henk had gotten several contracts with two large platinum mining companies, and he purchased more LiuGong machines. Till now, he has purchased and owned 78 different LiuGong machines. He often talks to sales personnel of the subsidiary that it is not blood running in his veins, but diesel and hydraulic oil. LiuGong machines have made great contributions to his business and he has always been very loyal to the LiuGong brand. The first batch of two ZL50C wheel loaders purchased by Henk not only laid a solid foundation for his business at the beginning, but also contributed a lot to his future business. Two years ago, these two ZL50C wheel loaders “retired” after having worked for many years. Henk was reluctant to dispose of them. Instead, he renovated them and used them for his farm work. When he is not busy, he would let them do some easy work. He said, “There is always a spot in my heart for the ZL50C.”

Henk and his family have very strong capabilities of maintaining and refitting equipment. They often give feedback to LiuGong staff such as local working conditions and driving habits to help LiuGong improve product design and enhance quality.  

One instance included Henk gaving a suggestion for a key technical problem: Install the radiator at the back of the machine instead of its top - the original place - to avoid dust coming down and accumulating in the radiator causing it to not work properly.

LiuGong is the reason why my business is still running strong.

Daantjie is Henk’s second younger brother, another key customer of LiuGong. Daantjie has 7 856 wheel loaders. He is also contracting earthworks in platinum mines.

Just like his elder brother Henk, Daantjie has been helping their father in the maintenance workshop since childhood. At the age of 10, Daantjie drove his father’s wheel loaders or trucks to play at night. At the age of 16, he officially started to work in his father’s workshop.

In 1992, the year his father passed away, Daantjie started to work as a maintenance man at Skeat Mining Company, maintaining machines including mining trucks, excavators, wheel loaders and other equipment from Caterpillar, Liebherr and Komatsu. Afterwards, Daantjie was promoted to foreman and participated in the management of the opencast mine. In 2007, he joined Altivex Mining Company, serving as Mining Manager.

In 2009, Daantjie established his own equipment maintenance company. In 2010, he bought his first 856 Wheel Loader (ZF Axle).It is a secondhand, having worked for over 4,000 hours. Daantjie renovated the wheel loader and used it for crusher feeding and truck loading work on Kathu iron mine in the middle of South Africa. In the same working area, there are two foreign brand machines owned by another contractor. “LiuGong’s 856 Wheel Loader is superior to those two foreign machines in the aspects of oil consumption, power and shoveling efficiency”. Daantjie says, “It takes 7 shovels to fill the Bell B40 truck by either wheel loader at the same time. However, when the truck is filled by 856 ZF and it has already driven away, those two other machines are just starting to shovel for the 7th time. Till now, 856 ZF has worked more than 18,000 hours. And it still keeps working in the mine area. Daantjie is very pleased with the extraordinary performance of LiuGong 856 ZF wheel loader.

Because of the superior quality, simple maintenance and high reliability of LiuGong equipment, Henk and Daatjie, have been actively recommending LiuGong equipment to managers of mines, business partners and their friends. Under their guidance, many customers have chosen LiuGong products. For example, Eddie, Daantjie’s partner, thinks LiuGong equipment is better to use and easier to maintain. He purchased 6 888 wheel loaders. He also plans to purchase another 888 wheel loaders at the end of this year. Later on, the mining company, with which Eddie is contracted, purchased LiuGong wheel loaders as well with Eddie’s recommendation.

Daantjie said to the key account manager of LiuGong’s South Africa subsidiary, “LiuGong is the reason why my business is still running strong.” As new projects are started, he said confidently that he would soon surpass his elder brother and become the biggest customer of LiuGong in South Africa.

A good customer can keep good machines working.

Henk and Daantjie, the two brothers, have learned many techniques of equipment maintenance from their father and acquired much equipment maintenance knowledge over the years. The two brothers are very exact with their workers. They take good care of their equipment and always maintain the equipment by themselves.

Some local customers in South Africa think that because European or U.S. or Japanese machines are of advanced technology and quality, they are inclined to pay attention to maintenance; but incorrectly think that Chinese machines are ordinary in quality and cheap in price, so they use them without properly maintaining them. Once any malfunction occurs, they may complain about the bad quality, calling it rubbish. However, Henk and his brother have totally different understanding: Without taking good care of the equipment, you cannot keep it working in a good condition for long. Therefore, they have strict requirements for operators and maintenance men of their companies and they manage LiuGong machines carefully: Grease the machines during every shift; clean regularly, and perform regular maintenance; change worn parts in time, etc. That’s why the attendance rate of their machines is all very high: Under the requirement of high output and high attendance rate of mine areas, working for 3 shifts lasting for 21 hours every day is guaranteed. Since platinum ore is high in proportion and heavy in weight, they have made necessary refitting and reinforcement to the shovel of a 5-ton wheel loader: reduced it to 1.8 m3; cut off Forward-4 Gear; forbid all operators to use 3 Gear when the machine is empty; only Gear 1 and Gear 2 are available when shoveling. On-site management personnel often conduct inspection tours. If they find that any operator conducts abusive operations or the machine is dirty and messy, the workers will be ordered to rectify the situation immediately.

Second-hand 856 keeps working efficiently after rebuild

Daantjie bought this second-hand 856 wheel loader from a coal mine. He wanted to rebuild it and use it on the family farm. It was produced in 2007. From its condition, we can see that the first owner did not take good care of it, nor did he maintain it. At that time, it has already worked for over 9,000 hours with coal dust everywhere, worn internal controls, and a severely worn bucket. And the grease at every joint was dry; even the size and treads of four wheels was different.

The whole rebuild process took 3 weeks including procedures like removing rust and painting for the whole machine; replacing all hydraulic oil tanks; installing brand-new wheels, tires, new bucket, all pins and bushings, new air conditioner, pilot pump, main hydraulic pump and transmission shaft; and conducting overall maintenance to the engine and transmission. 

Henk and his brother operate independently but their relationship with each other is very harmonious. They work hard on their own business. And when they have some leisure time, they gather in their family farm to talk and have a barbecue. The big family enjoys themselves very much and their commitment to LiuGong shows in not only their businesses but at the family farm as well.