Finning International Inc. (TSX:FTT) has inked a US$185 million contract with Canadian mining company Lundin Mining Corp. (TSX:LUN) to supply mining equipment for Lundin’s Candelaria copper-gold mine in Chile.
Finning, headquartered in Vancouver, is the world’s largest distributor of Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) heavy equipment and vehicles.
Under the contract with Lundin, Finning will supply 70 pieces of heavy mining vehicles and machinery (hydraulic shovels and highway trucks) for Lundin’s open-pit and underground mine complex in Chile.
Finning will also provide maintenance of the fleet of vehicles and machinery. The deal is just one of the more recent signs of the recovery of the mining industry.
“This is the first significant order for mining equipment that Finning has secured in Chile since the industry’s decline in 2014,” said Marcello Marchese, Finning’s president of South American operations.
“As activity in the mining sector begins to improve, we are well positioned to capture equipment and product support opportunities.”
Finning serves the mining, forestry and oil and gas sectors, and has divisions in Canada, South America and the UK and Ireland.
Finning was forced to reduce its workforce in response to a prolonged bear market in mining, followed by a sharp contraction in the oil and gas sector, after oil prices plunged between 2014 and 2016.
At the beginning of 2015, Finning announced it would reduce its global workforce by 1,900, and in November 2015 announced it would cut another 1,100 jobs in Western Canada and Chile, followed by another round of layoffs in early 2016.
According to Finning’s most recent interim financial statements, the company notched up a 16% increase in revenue in the third quarter of 2017, compared with Q3 2016, as a result of a 25% increase in equipment sales.
