You have to admire contractors who go out on a limb to try a new brand of equipment instead of staying with the tried and trusted.
And although Chinese manufacturer, Sany, is not completely new to the market, it still has a long way to go to become recognised in New Zealand forestry circles. But there are promising signs.
Sany is one of the world’s largest producers of excavators and Shaw’s Wire Ropes didn’t miss a beat by picking up the distribution rights to sell Sany excavator-based machines to forestry operators in New Zealand about two years ago.
With manufacturing facilities in Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and United States, the company now employs more than 90,000 people. The brand has already gained a foothold across the ditch and is now gaining recognition here among forestry operators
Shaw’s Product Manager, Jonny Edwards, says Sany has been very well received by Kiwi forestry operators, including Fast Logging in Tokoroa (with three Sany machines), Steven Stokes has five Sany units out working, one unit at Moutere Logging in Nelson and another six working as DC winch tether machines. And now Mahuta Logging has purchased a 40-tonne Sany SH415H, the very first of this model in the country. Another two SY415H arrived in New Zealand in late 2021, one of which has gone to EMS to become a Harvestline setup and the other is at Ensign receiving another processor package with a Woodsman Pro 850 head. Shaws also has four SY305H grapple packages completed by Ensign as stock units.
After landing in the country, the Mahuta machine underwent a full high and wide conversion and had a forestry cab and extensive guarding package fitted by Ensign in Rotorua.
While Ensign now supplies its high and wide design to Sany for the smaller Sany 245 and 305 models, it’s just not cost-effective for the Chinese factory to carry these out on the SH415H, due to smaller production runs, so the entire forestry conversion on this model continues to be done in New Zealand.
Not that Mahuta Logging owner Hayden Wilson is complaining. He’s rapt with his latest acquisition and how it is already making a substantial dent in the current job at Port Waikato, adding that if his operators are happy and the client is happy, then he’s happy.
His crew was busy processing logs on the skid at a huge woodlot site, just south of the Port Waikato settlement, when NZ Logger visited during the always busy lead-up to Christmas.
“We’ve been in this forest for three months now and it’ll probably take us another two years,” Hayden explains.
“We’ve got another 150ha under PF Olsen. The terrain here is a mix of really steep and challenging-to-rolling hills, you have to bury a lot of wood (corduroy) up here to keep your machines out of the muck. Plus, it can be hard to find good operators up here that will look after your gear and who aren’t put off by the travel time here.”
Based in Ngatea, Hayden is...
