Sibelco Australia commissioned a new diesel-
powered Toyota 72-8FD25 forklift in October at
its Charbon Lime plant, near Kandos.
TMHA Orange branch manager Richard
Bopping said the Sibelco unit at Charbon is the
most “site specific” forklift he has delivered in
his 13 years with Toyota.
“It’s a great example of the level of
customisation available to ensure our forklifts
are perfectly matched to the customer’s
needs. The diverse range of tasks this forklift
undertakes is pretty impressive too,” he said.
Sibelco site maintenance supervisor Andrew
Schneider said the new forklift operates on
uneven ground in a limestone-processing plant.
“It is the right tool for the right job,” he said.
“We asked for a limited-slip differential and
wide, puncture-proof tyres, because the plant
is located on the side of a hill and the ground
conditions vary.
“Most of the site has a concrete surface, but
there is a lot of uneven gravel as well.”
The extensive site-specific fit-out for the
machine also includes a custom hydraulic fork
positioner, fork vibration damper, analogue
weight gauge, dual-element cyclonic air filter, a
pre cleaner, radiator screen, up-swept exhaust
system, high-capacity alternator, high-capacity
battery and fire extinguisher.
Andrew Schneider said the new forklift has
joined two older Toyota forklifts on site and
performs a wide variety of roles.
“The new Toyota has to be an all-rounder,
because it serves as both a general-duties
forklift and with the maintenance department.
Duties range from loading and unloading
trucks to lifting machinery parts with our jib
attachment,” he said.
“It loads the bulka bags of lime powder we sell
to mines in the Hunter Valley, unloads steel from
trucks, carries the drums of oil we use to light
the kilns and assists when we disassemble the
fixed machinery for maintenance.”
Summarising the purchase decision, Andrew
Schneider said the Toyota forklift was the pick
of the bunch and that the specifications met all
of Sibelco’s performance, reliability and safety
requirements.
Toyota’s 72-8FD25 forklift is part of Toyota’s
leading-edge 8-Series range of counter-balance
forklifts, which includes gas and diesel models,
as well as full range of battery electric forklifts.
Safety features of the Toyota 8-Series forklift
range include Toyota’s exclusive System of
Active Stability (SAS) and Operator Presence
Sensing (OPS) as standard features.
Toyota Material Handling Australia has specially tailored a 2.5-tonne forklift to
meet the specific site needs at a New SouthWales Lime plant.
sibelco’sToyota forklift tailored to siteneeds
Andrew Schneider (left) with Sibelco’s
highly specified new Toyota 8-FD25 forklift.
TMHA also extended its uninterrupted
dominance of the internal-combustion counter-
balance forklift market to 28 years, with market
share of 35.8 per cent.
The official Australian Industrial Truck
Association (AITA) industry sales results for
2014 show TMHA delivered in excess of 4,450
forklifts in 2014.
This represents a total market share of 32.4 per
cent, an increase of 3.8 per cent on 2013.
The result was more than 680 forklifts ahead of
Toyota’s nearest rival.
Battery-electric forklifts accounted for just over
half (50.7 per cent) of Toyota forklift deliveries.
Toyota was number one in forklifts in New South
Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia,
Tasmania and Western Australia.
TMHA executive vice president and COO,
Steve Takacs, said the strong results provide
significant momentum going into the new year.
“The strong sales results are pleasing to see,
particularly as we start the new year in a strong
financial position,” Mr Takacs said.
“Our extensive national TMHA branch network
is growing. We recently opened five new
branches, with more to follow in response
to business growth, and we are recruiting
additional technical and management staff.
“We lead the industry with our apprentice
program and in-house training, and are
currently recruiting a new intake of apprentices
for 2015.”
Mr Takacs also said TMHA will release new
models into the market this year, one of which
being a new range of Toyota 8-Series battery-
electric sit down reach trucks.
“It all adds up to another big year for TMHA,
and we look forward to maintaining our number
one position in the Australian material handling
market,” Mr Takacs said.
Forklift industry sales results for 2014 show that Toyota Material Handling Australia
retained overall national forklift market leadership for the sixth consecutive year.
Toyota extends forkliftmarket leadership
Toyota Material Handling Australia executive vice president and COO, Steve Takacs
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