Equipment Report

JOHN DEERE BUYS INTO CHINESE EQUIPMENT CO.

Deere & Co., Moline, Ill., has announced an agreement to purchase the foreign-held shares of Shanghai GE Construction Equipment Engineering Co., based in Shanghai, China. John Deere Construction Equipment Co. will purchase the 60% owned by GE Capital Corp. and the 20% owned by American Construction Equipment Co. The remaining 20% will be owned by Shanghai Urban Construction Investment & Development General Corp.

“We now have an opportunity to enter the growing rental business in China and create a method for increased sales of Deere construction machinery in the Chinese market,” says Pierre Leroy, president of John Deere’s Worldwide Construction Equipment Division. He says Deere would change the Shanghai operation from its current emphasis on crane rentals to renting construction machinery in China.

The acquisition needs approval from the Chinese government—a process that is expected to take 60 to 90 days. The name of the company will be changed to Shanghai Deere Rental Equipment Co. Deere says it will rent products in Shanghai that are made at its Dubuque and Davenport plants and also products produced through its joint venture with Hitachi.

BUNTING BUYS MILLENIUM

Bunting Magnetics Co., Newton, Kan., has purchased Millenium Industries Inc., a sales and service organization for metal detection and separation equipment based in Allentown, Pa.

Millenium founder and owner Paul Hueter will join Bunting as its technical support manager for metal detectors and will run the reconfigured Allentown office. He will also be in charge of Bunting technical support, internal training and product evaluation and testing. Hueter will provide training and consultation for Bunting’s regional sales managers, master reps and district sales managers.

AWP INDUSTRIES OPENS NEW WAREHOUSE

AWP Industries Inc., Frankfort, Ky., has added a new warehousing facility in a suburb of Los Angeles. The new facility is capable of holding several thousand pieces of AWP (American Wire Products) inventory. AWP will be stocking five standard sizes of wire mesh rack decking and two standard sizes of folding wire mesh containers at the facility.

“We are very excited about what this new facility has to offer,” says Craig Chamberlin, president. “This new warehouse lets us maintain larger stock inventories of our wire mesh products, allowing us to better serve our West Coast customers.”

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June 2000
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