SHACMAN Pulls Through in Jamaica

Date:2020-03-16 Source:jamaicaobserver

SHACMAN Jamaica, local suppliers of Chinese-made Shacman heavy equipment, said the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak caused some of their manufacturers to temporarily close operations in that country. However, it did not affect local business.

“We are very fortunate that we had a lot of trucks in stock and we had a lot of trucks on the water, 34 of which arrived yesterday (Tuesday). Therefore, with regards to supplying trucks to customers, we don't have an issue. But the long and short of it, yes, it affected Shacman,” John Ralston, managing director of Tank-Weld Equipment, told the Jamaica Observer's Auto magazine.

According to the managing director, production for the large F3000 had halted.

“The factory stopped production for 10 days for the Chinese New Year, and they did not restart until up to recently. They are up to about 95 per cent production at this particular time. So they're pretty much back to normal,” he said.

“They have a medium-sized duty truck, that factory is not back into production yet. But they are making efforts to restart it,” he continued.

Ralston was optimistic of China bringing the virus under control.

“The numbers seem to be going down in China, but going up everywhere else in the world. So the problem may not be in China very long. It may be everywhere else, except for China,” he said.