How many have been made? how many are still in use? and where are they being used? I think I had heard that almost half were in Canada working in the Tar sands…
So maybe 14,000 or so by now? (Caterpillar hasn’t been doing well the last few years.)
That’s the 793, an entirely different beast. The market for the ultra class… The 797 size machine, at closer to 400t haulage, is far more limited. I’d estimate easily half were destined for the the tar sands market. Many are in use with soft and hard Rock mining elsewhere in the world however. Nearly all manufacturers have found the ultra class haven’t scaled that well, and they are not as popular as first hoped.
Also with cat’s takeover of terex within the last 5 years, the product range has blended. Not sure how long the future for the 797 is anymore. Arguably the 930E and the mt6600 are more popular and cheaper machines.
Really? I mean, as far as I know they dominate the market. Do they even have any competition?
In N America and Europe; yes they do. DAC is the only competitor that I can think of.
Elsewhere the Chinese have come up with some powerful and cheap designs which tend to dominate in Africa and S Asia and I recall reading (sorry no cite) about sales to Australia.
In the field OP is talking about, they absolutely have competition. Komatsu, Hitachi, terex, Bucyrus etc. Note that cat bought the last two of those companies in the last few years, but I imagine would hit anti trust barriers with any more takeover growth. However now there are Chinese manufacturers flooding the market with full size, full capability machines of unknown quality. Even the major customers are starting to procure and trial these Chinese machines, so it will be interesting to see how the market share moves about.
Prior to the takeover of terex, they did not offer a top class full electric drive 793 style truck, all their haul units were mechanical drive train. This turned many customers off.
Cat also heavily compete with other companies in their other market sectors. They seem obsequioius and are certainly the market leader, but they are in a heavy market.
I advised a client on a sale for a Chinese trucks last year. At least the technical people who I spoke to spoke favorably.
However, I think (I am willing to be corrected) that the propulsion system for all is made either by MAN or Cummins.
I’d can’t be sure, but from what I saw I’d agree they seem to use European and US designed engines and transmission gear. For now. Also not sure about final drive and wheel assemblies.
However the larger trucks have seemed to suffer plenty from structural issues and tray wear, in hard Rock applications, so this is where my concerns may lie with this gear. Also the bevy of interface issues between vendor packages that will surely rear their heads.
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