Finning will deliver a Caterpillar autonomous haulage solutions to the Ministro Hales mine in Chile. (Photo: Finning)
Chile’s state-owned copper mining company, Codelco, selected Cat dealer Finning to deliver new trucks, product support and an autonomous technology pilot to its mining operations in northern Chile. The order reportedly includes 20 Cat 797 haul trucks and 15 pieces of support equipment.
“We are very pleased to build on our long-term relationship with Codelco to deliver and support the new Cat ultra-class truck fleet at its Radomiro Tomic mine and pilot Caterpillar’s autonomous solution at the Ministro Hales mine,” said Scott Thomson, president and CEO of Finning International. “We continued to navigate through COVID-19 restrictions in all our operations to safely provide service to our customers while positioning our business for an improving demand environment. We are optimistic about market recovery gaining momentum in the second half of 2021 as the vaccine rollout ramps up in each of our regions.”
For Q1 2021, Finning said its consolidated equipment backlog increased by 57% from Q4 2020 to $1.2 billion, the highest backlog since Q4 2018. Consolidated order intake was up by 33% from Q4 2020, the highest since Q1 2018, with all operations reporting a significant increase in order intake.
“We are encouraged by the buildup of equipment backlog in all our regions and product support activity strengthening through the first quarter,” Thomson said. We are seeing strong quoting activity for equipment and product support across all market sectors.”
