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EQUIPMENT ON CALL
Masaha Company for Rental of All Kinds of Equipment operates one of the largest and youngest equipment rental fleets in Kuwait, with increasing demand as contractors see the benefits of renting – low capital costs, flexible fleet management and streamlined logistics.
As Masaha Company for Rental of All Kinds of Equipment has grown its rental offering in recent years, it has found itself well positioned to meet growing demand from contractors. The Kuwaiti heavy equipment and commercial vehicles distributor, a member of the Foud Alghanim & Sons Group of Companies, represents a number of brands.
These include Chinese equipment powerhouse Sany, aerial working platforms from Sky Boom, Heli forklifts and Weichai generators from 60kVA up to 2,000kVA, as well as Foton, which covers a range of trucks and buses. Sany is a full-line producer with more than 200 different products, including earth moving equipment (excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders, roller compactors) in addition to mobile cranes, asphalt pavers, mini excavators and concrete equipment.
“We are a one-stop shop. We can rent or hire up to 70% of all the equipment that a contractor needs on a work-site,” explains Alaa Ghazaleh, Equipment Rental Manager at Masaha Company.
Masaha began its rental business in 2017, and today has around 1,400 units in its fleet, one of the largest in Kuwait. One additional advantage for customers is its young age – the oldest machines in the fleet are 2018 models. “In this regard we have been a pioneering company for equipment rental in Kuwait,” says Ghazaleh.
Equipment can be rented with an operator or just the machine. In addition to the core equipment, excavators can also be rented with attachments such as jackhammers, buckets compactors and augers – Masaha is distributor for Storm, a Korean attachment manufacturer.
One of the key reasons for a contractor to choose renting equipment over owning – apart from the core capital expenditure – is to reduce maintenance costs and logistics, such as spare parts and service staff. Masaha has a 5,000sqm workshop at its main branch, as well as six mobile workshops working 24/7.
“Most customers are working double shift – meaning day and night – so we need to meet customers’ requirements. We have three mobile workshops working during the day and three during the night, and in addition we are planning to increase the overall number of mobile workshops,” explains Ghazaleh.
The mobile workshops typically carry out minor jobs, while for major jobs the main workshop takes care of the job.
The good news for clients is that Masaha provides a replacement machine in the case of a breakdown: and in some cases, Masaha can even provide standby units for certain project sites free of charge, in order to ensure there’s no disruption to site operations.
That means that Masaha essentially takes care of the full logistics chain – machine delivery, mobilisation, maintenance, repairs, demobilisation – while the customer remains responsible for fuelling.
It illustrates why rentals are increasingly popular – many of the ‘headaches’ are outsourced to the rental company.
Sany excavators are among the most popular machines in Masaha Company’s rental fleet.
Low unit costs reflected in rental rates
Sany as a brand has developed enormously in recent years. Initially, customers were given a free week with the equipment, as a demonstration. Market acceptance has quickly grown as the machines have proven themselves in the field, notes Ghazaleh.
“As the rental manager, I receive and review the monthly equipment utilisation time-sheet reports. These time-sheets show how machines perform on-site and indicate durability and quality, and when I look as these sheets I see consistent productivity across our rental fleet – I don’t see any recurring reliability issues in our machines.”
The rental model gives customers immediate productivity without a focus on broader total ownership costs such as maintenance, machine durability and resale value, while also taking advantage of the price advantage of Sany’s Chinese machines. The unit cost of a machine determines its monthly rental cost, meaning Sany rentals can be offered at a lower price than other premium brands, says Ghazaleh.
There is growing demand from contractors to rent equipment rather than own it. A number of factors drive demand – the main ones are avoiding large up-front capital costs and being able to dynamically manage monthly equipment costs based on project progress.
Rental also allows them to dramatically reduce ongoing costs by pausing the rental plan if there is a disruption with the project due to budget delays or unexpected problems, as was the case with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, equipment utilisation is typically higher, since machines with maintenance problems are replaced by the rental company, rather than having to wait for the service department to get them running again, avoiding slow repairs when spare parts need to be ordered.
Customers can also call up additional machines at short notice when additional speed is needed on a project, avoiding possible long lead times when purchasing a new machine.
Alaa Ghazaleh, Equipment Rental Manager at Masaha Company.
“What we have noticed is that in the last years, most of the customers in Kuwait have changed their concept and perceptions about acquiring equipment. They are thinking, ‘If I rent equipment, I can have it in hours without needing to freeze capital or deal with all the maintenance and logistics.’ Renting equipment has become a very important part of contractors’ business plans,” says Ghazaleh.
Management recognised the trend towards rentals in the market and positioned the company to grow strategically in this area, says Ghazaleh. “They saw that demand for rentals would steadily grow, and this came true.”
Most contractors will continue to purchase around 25% of their fleet and rent the remaining 75%, he estimates. Masaha also offers flexible rental contracts – monthly, weekly and daily. “With all the uncertainty in the world, contractors don’t want to pay lots of money to purchase machines when renting is an option. We want to help all our clients, including offering more flexible rental contracts.”
In terms of equipment, top product demand for the rental business is in excavators, mobile cranes and trucks and buses. In the excavator range, the 35.5-tonne SY335C Sany is the most sought after, and for mobile cranes it’s truck cranes in the 30-50-tonne range.
In the future, demand for Sky Boom’s lifting solutions – articulating man-lift, telescopic manlift, scissor lift – will grow, believes Ghazaleh, since aerial work platforms are underrepresented in the Kuwait market.
“Overall we believe the trend for contractors will be to continue to rent more and more machines, and that is why we here at Masaha Company are a one-stop shop for equipment,” he concludes..
