MacLean, GHH Announce Global Partnership, Inaugurate Plant In Mexico

Mining equipment manufacturers MacLean Engineering of Canada and GHH Fahrzeuge GmbH of Germany are partnering to provide mining, tunneling, and contracting companies with a full suite of mobile equipment product categories, across the mining cycle. MacLean and GHH have signed an agreement for mutual product sales and support, leveraging each company’s respective branch footprints and mining application knowledge.

The MacLean-GHH global partnership was announced during a ribbon-cutting event held at MacLean’s newest manufacturing plant and its first outside of Canada, a 60,000 sq.ft. facility in Querétaro, Mexico.

The companies said the initial focus of the strategic partnership will be on the North American, Eastern European, and Central Asian mining, tunneling and construction markets. This approach will build on the existing MacLean platform of field service and sales support in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. It will allow mining and tunneling operations in these countries to immediately benefit from a MacLean product line integration of the GHH load and haul product offering, while at the same time building off of GHH’s extensive branch network in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and India to support the introduction of MacLean mining vehicles into those regions.

“The combination of the MacLean and GHH product lines is a significant turning point for both companies, but in the context of a global industry that is increasingly looking to reduce the complexity of supply chains to achieve better maintenance, total cost of ownership, safety, and productivity outcomes, it simply makes good sense,” said MacLean President Kevin MacLean. “We’re very optimistic about the prospects of combining forces with a company like GHH that has a stellar and time-tested reputation for design quality, mining know-how, and innovation that works in the challenging underground environment – just like MacLean.”

For nearly five decades, MacLean has manufactured and supported underground mining mobile equipment in the ground support, ore flow and utility vehicle product categories.

GHH along with its family of mining vehicle manufacturing companies has built a global name in the industry across a full suite of product categories, in particular through a line of loaders (LHDs) and dump trucks purpose-designed for the underground mining and tunneling environment. GHH’s offering also includes narrow vein loaders and specialized super low-profile vehicles for softrock salt and potash mines in Germany and North America.

“GHH is continuously striving to improve our customer support through increasing our product and support offering. Partnering with key, well established companies in critical markets, gives us ‘feet on the ground’ providing customers with effective and efficient solutions to all mining and tunneling projects,” said Dr. Jan Petzold, CEO of GHH. “Through this newly formed partnership with MacLean, we look forward to significantly strengthening our footprint and product offering. Leveraging MacLean’s already well-established network and experience, together with GHH’s years of design, development and application experience, we will provide customers with the Total Offering Solution they require, as well as complete aftermarket support from upfront sale through the life of the machines.”

“By establishing full manufacturing in Queretaro and integrating it to our four other existing Ontario manufacturing facilities, MacLean is sending a clear message to mining customers in Latin America – we are standing beside you every step of the way from design to site and aftermarket parts support, now including engineered load and haul mining vehicles,” said Rene Valle, general manager of MacLean operations in Mexico and Central America.