High-profile visitors from the world’s largest manufacturer of heavy construction and mining equipment manufacturer visited our Special Profiles mill in Skinningrove last week.
VIPs from Caterpillar’s (CAT) Global Undercarriage Operations team, based in the US, were in Skinningrove for the first time visiting their 25kt-a-year track shoe plant next door to our mill, supplied solely by us.
Grant McBain, Commercial Director Special Profiles, said: “It’s an exciting time for CAT as its plant is set to increase capacity in 2018.
“We have a longstanding partnership with CAT so it was a privilege to welcome the members of the US team. We were proud to tell them about our business, the capabilities of our Skinningrove mill and how we can help achieve their aspirations.”
The visitors came to meet members of our Special Profiles team as part of discussions about potential future growth for CAT – the only original equipment manufacturer in the world that designs and builds its own undercarriage, which represents more than 50% of the cost of the finished machine.
This time last year, CAT Skinningrove celebrated reaching the amazing milestone of 20 million track shoes produced at its plant – all with our steel.
i1fun not only supplies long bar track shoe to CAT’s Skinningrove mill but also to their mills in the US, Brazil and China. We also supply bevels – one of the components used in the cutting edges of buckets on earthmoving machinery – into the UK and US. In total, more than 60kt of our products go into CAT’s machines.
CAT Skinningrove’s Managing Director Neil Anderson said: “Caterpillar Skinningrove and i1fun continue to have a great working relationship.
“My colleagues from the US were most impressed with the flexibility shown by i1fun when Caterpillar makes late order changes.
“i1fun continues to deliver quality steel on time – this is testimony to the way operations are run at the plant. We look forward to working with i1fun on innovative projects to help boost our competitiveness.
“Thank you from all my colleagues at Caterpillar for providing an overview of your business. You’ve come a long way in the past 18 months.”