Curry is named after Curryville in Pennsylvania, in the heart of the Marcellus and Utica shales which, along with US President Barack Obama’s environmental regulations have hammered the state’s once-prolific coal sector.
However, Curry’s director of marketing Tom Catalano told ICN that there were still opportunities in the state’s coal industry.
He said that while coal mining companies in the region may not be bullish about their long-term future, they still need to operate day to day.
While Curry has been buffered from the downturn in both mining and hydrocarbon commodity prices through its exposure to the region’s traditionally strong agriculture and general construction sectors, the company has also found ways to help the coal sector in tough times.
“The key for Curry in navigating the downturn in oil and gas prices was noticing that operators are no longer putting out large sums of money for big capital investments, and are not actively replacing the fleet unless otherwise mandated,” Catalano said.
“So Curry looked at industries that capitalise on uncertainty, like the rental industry.
“The company put an increased focus into the rental industry because they’re going to start renting to the mines because they’re not ready to put out that kind of capital.”
Curry, which provides various types of trucks, trailers, lube skids, tanks, rig vacs and rail services across a range of sectors, has come up with some unique solutions to “help the [coal] guys through”
“We’ve also tried to encapsulate more fleet management solutions to them in terms of managing their lifecycle. You’re going to get seven years or refurbish the product and put it back in for another 10 years and then you replace them,” Catalano said.
“So we can you get you along at 30% of what your new purchase would be and get you through another 7-10 years so you’re just buying time [until the sector recovers].”
He said the key was being dynamic, because one thing that’s become clear in the downturn is that companies that win business right now are the ones willing to look at situations, provide solutions and understand the different factors that are influencing their industries.
“We try to take a very industry-centric approach to our products,” Catalano said. “We don’t just put them on the shelf and say come pick want you want. We understand industry from construction all the way down to rail … How can we help these guys out?
“The construction industry is booming right now – what kind of work are they doing? Ten years ago the construction industry was heavy land development and new bridges and highway projects. Today it could be said the construction industry is doing better, but there’s a different face to it. They’re doing refurbs and bridge and infrastructure repair work.”
Coal has not been immune to this cyclical picture, with precious metals mines being more busy than coal these days. Years ago in the US the oil and gas industry was all about oil, until the Marcellus shales changed the picture with hydraulic fracturing, which forced Curry to figure how to support those industries.
Curry ships its products internationally, including to Australia, where Colemans Equipment is its distributor.
