Published in the September 2011 Australia's Mining Monthly Magazine

A large hybrid electric wheel loader.

This particular beast is not the sort of thing traditionally associated with Joy Global’s two businesses P&H Mining Equipment and Joy Mining Machinery.

But that is exactly what Joy will have on Stand 110 at this year’s AIMEX.

For those who came in late, neither P&H nor Joy Mining have gone into the large capacity wheel loader business.

Joy has, however, acquired LeTourneau Technologies – a deal it finalised in June.

This is why a Hybrid L1150 will be on show as well as complementary services including aftermarket support, field service repairs and training.

LeTourneau also will have its own display at stand 205.

Wheel loader aside, P&H and Joy also will have an array of machinery and interactive displays on their stand. Together the companies offer solutions for both surface and underground mining systems.

They have a range including electric mining shovels, walking draglines, in-pit crushing and conveying systems, drills, wheel loaders, shuttle cars, bolting products, motors, longwall shearers and roof supports.

In addition the two will promote their Smart Services solutions – the group’s vision for “taking it to the next level”

This focus on Smart Services technology will be further bolstered with the Joy Global facility to be built in the New South Wales Hunter Valley in 2012.

This shared facility is part of the vision of where Joy wants to position itself in the next few years.

Joy Mining Machinery Australasia managing director Brad Neilson said Smart Services went well beyond the traditional product offering and associated services.

“It’s about gathering relevant information and using this information to deliver enhanced Smart Services that are pre-emptive and predictive that ultimately maximise our customers’ assets by safely providing improved machine availability, utilisation, minimal downtime and reduced costs,” he said.

The Joy Global facility will combine existing and forthcoming services under one roof.

Joy bought LeTourneau from Rowan Companies for $US1.1 billion.

Joy’s joy comes on two fronts.

Firstly the addition of LeTourneau’s large capacity wheel loaders gives its P&H business a fillip.

Joy Global president and chief executive officer Mike Sutherlin said the LeTourneau mining products division was a natural fit with P&H.

“It adds another solution for surface loading that complements our electric mining shovels and gives us access to smaller and non-electrified mines,” he said.

LeTourneau’s other key business is drilling products. It is a leading designer of offshore jack-up drilling rigs and also manufactures primary components for them.

“The drilling products business moves us into another area of resource extraction that has similar fundamentals and value drivers as surface and underground mining and therefore is a good fit for our business model, which focuses on equipment reliability and life cycle management,” Sutherlin said.

“Oil and gas has been defined as a strategic growth opportunity for a number of years, and LeTourneau gives us a great entry point into this sector.”

LeTourneau is well positioned to grow its mining business as mines continue to expand.

It is the only maker of electric drive loaders. LeTourneau, with its monstrous L2350, has the only wheel loader capable of loading a 363 tonne ultraclass dump truck.

Indeed, it can load one in five passes – only one more than a shovel would take.

P&H Mining Equipment president and chief operating officer Randy Baker said the addition of LeTourneau’s wheel loaders would enhance P&H’s product offering.

“We believe that the LeTourneau business gives us the opportunity to further build on our life cycle management strategy by adding a complementary product range that brings volume and scope to our aftermarket business,” he said.

LeTourneau’s drilling products business is expected to benefit from the renewal of a new rig build cycle for both offshore and land rigs.

This demand is driven by the increased requirement for new, high-specification rigs and the emerging need to replace the majority of the jack-up fleet that is approaching its design life.

This industry trend has been typified by 22 jack-up rig orders to date in 2011 – as at May 16 – with options for 28 more.