50
REGIONALREPORT JAPAN
IRNAPRIL-MAY 2015
to apply these types of equipment to overseas
construction even after the large projects such as
Olympic-related jobs are completed.”
On the possibility of a shrinking market after
2019, the company said: “We guess the construction
market will shrink after 2019, when large projects
like theOlympic infrastructureare completed. Under
these circumstances, it is unclear how all the rental
companies will maintain and develop their rental
businesses.
“We consider that shifting the machines
to maintenance and reinforcement work for
infrastructure in domestic market, and expanding
business in overseas markets are good ways to
maintain and develop rental businesses at this
moment. However, it is uncertain whether these
actionswill compensateadequately for theshrinking
of currentmarket.
Restructuring
“The major restructuring at rental market will
probably be unavoidable. Wewill try to reinforce our
management base and improve fundraising capacity
and also hope to keep the leading position after
reorganisation.”
While the temptation for outsiders is toviewJapan
isonemarket, inacountryso large - itspopulation is
around 127 million - regional differences will always
exist.
This is something that Kanamoto, whose product
range includes hydraulic excavators, generators and
aerial workplatforms, is awareof.
President and CEO, Kanchu Kanamoto, said his
experience of the market is more in line with the
JCRA survey: “In theTohoku region, demand remains
brisk, but in the Kanto region, it can be expected to
climb. Everywhere else, demand has dipped slightly
compared with the previous year. Altogether, the
demand for Japanas awhole is flat.
“The timing for implementation of the Tier 4
regulations is uncertain, making it difficult to judge
investment in Tier 3.5machines.
“Naturally this is a factor pushing up the cost, but
because it’s difficult to reflect this in the rental unit
price, so we have to absorb this in-house, such as
reducingour overhead.”
As a word of warning, Mr Kanamoto added: “The
industry is concerned about the possibility of a
sharp decrease in demand once the first stages of
earthquake reconstructionanddemandaheadof the
TokyoOlympics havebeen completed.”
That said, however: “We intend to increaseour
equipment portfolio.”
IRN
■
IRN wishes to thank Xiaoming Cheng of Nippon
Caterpillar for supplying the JCRA Industry Survey
figures quoted in this article.
Kanamoto said it intends to increase its equipment portfolio despite the possibility of a decrease in demand
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