Hanson was speaking at the Goldman Sachs Global Capital Goods Conference this month, where he outlined Joy’s market outlook.

“From our perspective what we see is a market that continues to be quite strong. There is a very high likelihood we will see some of the commodity prices come off their peaks and highs as a natural consequence of some of the shortages and speculation that has taken place,” Hanson said.

However, he said the current cycle was far from over, especially given the growth in demand from China and broadly, from around the world.

Like all OEMs, Joy has struggled to meet the demand for equipment with real capacity limitations, especially in the area of roof supports.

“We have resisted throwing cash simply at capacity expansion after the lessons that have been learnt in the last couple of decades,” Hanson said.

“We have had to add to our supplier base to gain capacity – to give us more production capabilities as we go forward in ’06 and ’07.”

Hanson said Joy was looking to “ratchet up” realizable capacity through process improvements, cycle time reductions and outsourcing non-proprietary content.

To increase roof support production capacity, Hanson said Joy was looking to China.

“Over the next few years we will shift a significant portion of that production to China and build capabilities there as we are able to find supplies of the right kind of materials – basically high alloy steels - that we need to manufacture those products,” he said.