PT. Berca Mandiri Perkasa will offer “one stop solution” at the Mining & Mineral Indonesia exhibition 2022. What equipment and solutions are going to be offered? The high growth of the mining industry, especially coal and nickel, after the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to drive the heavy equipment market and its supporting products in Indonesia lately. Associations related to the production and distribution of heavy equipment have repeatedly revised their production and sales targets for these capital goods due to the very dynamic market conditions. Even because of the high demand, almost all Suppliers, whatever the brand, have difficulty meeting the needs of their customers quickly. The waiting list is quite long. Supply chain disruptions in the aftermath of the global health crisis certainly contributed to this problem.

The high demand for heavy equipment has made dealers scramble to participate in the Mining & Mineral Indonesia exhibition, September 14–17, 2022, in Jakarta. The exhibition can indeed be a strategic stage for them to display the various equipment and technologies they have. One of the distributors of heavy equipment that is getting ready to appear at the exhibition is PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa. This subsidiary of PT Altrak 1978 will carry the concept of “one stop solutions,”, as stated by Dedy Panca Setyawan, Senior Manager of PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa, to Equipment Indonesia magazine towards the end of July.

“We have solutions for all needs in the mining industry. In the heavy equipment segment, we have Lonking. We have Berca Power for power generation, Mitsubishi Forklift for material handling, and Everdigm for drilling and blasting,” says the man, who is familiarly called Dedy, mentioning several brands. marketed by this company.

However, Berca’s “one stop solution” concept is inseparable from its parent company. According to Dedy, Altrak and Berca carry almost the same theme in this exhibition, and both of them have products that support one another.

“Altrak is more focused on heavy duty equipment, while Berca is more on light duty equipment. Altrak focuses on premium brands, while the secondary brand is held by Berca. That is why, in general, Berca can be said to be a complement to Altrak,” he explained.

As usual, the booths of the two companies will be side by side at the biennial event. Dedy said, due to limited space, Berca will only exhibit selected products, and they will be arranged more neatly so that they are pleasing to the eye. The products that the company will bring to the exhibition area consist of Lonking products.
(excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders, and compactors), Mitsubishi Forklifts, and Everdigm drilling and blasting. Especially for the Mitsubishi Forklift that will be exhibited, it is a model that is widely used as a tyre handler (disassembling heavy equipment tyres in mines). Explaining the target to be achieved at this exhibition, Dedy said that his party wanted to convey to the visitors that PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa has complete equipment for the mining industry, from heavy equipment, material handling to drilling and blasting. “This exhibition is very important for Berca because the pandemic for the last two years has disrupted the heavy equipment business. Through this exhibition, we want to convey that even though there is a crisis due to the pandemic, Berca is still there and provides the equipment needed by our customers,” he assured.

There are quite a number of brands of heavy equipment and machinery that are represented by PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa. However, for this exhibition, only products related to the mining business were displayed. Even though Berca is involved as an agent for various types of XCMG brand cranes, for example, Berca will not bring these tools to the exhibition area. Likewise with Berca Power. Berca Power is an in-house brand that presents generators with three engine options: Cummins, Weichai, and Mitsubishi. Customers are free to choose from the three engine brands. Specifically for Cummins, Dedy said the product was made in China, so it is still mechanical, and not an electronic engine. He claims that the specification is in accordance with the preferences of the Indonesian market, which prefers to use a mechanical engine because it is easier to repair than an electronic engine.

“They are more familiar with mechanical engines than electronic engines, even though electronic engines are more fuel efficient and have lower carbon emissions. However, from an operational perspective, electronic engines are considered more finicky because they are sensitive to low fuel quality,” he explained.

The market continues to grow.
Lonking is Berca’s flagship product in the heavy equipment segment. The market continues to grow, even though it has only been two years since the company has held its agency in Indonesia. Lonking products currently marketed are very complete. For excavators, there are classes ranging from 6 tonnes, 8.5 tonnes, 15 tonnes, 20 tonnes, 46 tonnes, and 49 tonnes. Meanwhile, for wheel loaders, they are available starting from bucket capacities of 1m3, 1.7m3, 1.8m3, 2.2m3, 3m3, 3.5m3, 4m3 eqn 5m3. Other types of equipment include motor graders and compactors (10 tonnes, 12 tonnes, 15 tonnes, and 20 tonnes), dozers (160 hp, 220 hp, and 230 hp), and skid steer loaders.

Lonking excavators of the 20-tonne class and above are powered by Cummins mechanical engines and Kawasaki pumps, so their quality is not inferior to Japanese products because they use the same components. “In terms of quality, it is not much different from Japanese products because it uses a Cummins engine, a Kawasaki pump, and a Doosan undercarriage,” he said proudly.

Berca’s hard work in marketing Lonking has started to bear fruit. The number of unit sales has continued to increase to the present hundreds. Currently, the main markets for this equipment are coal and nickel mines, especially those in the 20- to 50-tonne class. “This year we hope thenumber of sales can exceed 300 units, and in the next two years it can reach 500 units,” he said.

In the material handling segment, Berca represents four brands: Mitsubishi Forklift, Nichiyu Forklift, BYD Forklift, and Konecranes Reach Stacker. According to Dedy, currently the sales of the company’s material handling machines are in the range of 1200 to 1300 per year. No wonder Berca has ambitions to be in the Top 2 group in the Indonesian material handling segment. One of the focuses of PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa in this exhibition is to introduce electric and battery-powered material handler machines. Nichiyu Forklift is an electric-powered forklift, while BYD Forklift is battery-powered. “Material handling equipment powered by electricity and batteries is widely used in industries that demand clean indoor activities, such as in food factories and warehousing. Distribution centers require the use of pollution-free forklifts,” Dedy explained of the market targeted by the two forklifts.

Dedy hopes that, with sales that continue to increase, this company can enter the top five heavy equipment distributor companies in Indonesia, and become one of the leading players in the material handling equipment business.