Austin Engineering has doubled its order book year-on-year, partially due to Australia’s uptake of new Ultima truck trays despite a challenging market in Western Australia.
The updated design to the core of the Ultima trays has solidified the mid-term prospects of the truck body manufacturer.
“The design updates have been couple with cost efficiencies from the advanced manufacturing approach and the hub-and-spoke build strategy, increasing Austin’s product quality and cost competitiveness in the market,” the company stated.
“This action has already delivered a material level of new order wins, strengthening the FY22 order book and driving momentum into FY23.”
In December, the company reported an increase in orders of 35 per cent year-on-year, and has now reported a 100 per cent increase over the past 12 months.
Austin chief executive officer and managing director David Singleton said this should be enough to withstand the difficulties presented by labour shortages and COVID-19 in Western Australia.
“The doubling of orders for equipment in just 12 months, and with most of the improvement in the last six months, is clear evidence the strategies under Austin 2.0 are working” he said.
“While we see some logistics risks in our Western Australian operations due to rising COVID-19 case levels and subsequent restrictions, we are bolstered by a strong order book and pipeline looking out to full year 2023.”
The company added $60 million to its order book in November and December, as announced in January, across the Asia Pacific and the Americas regions.
This included over 100 haul truck bodies, excavator buckets, water tanks, mine chutes, and repairs and maintenance works.
However, it has not yet disclosed the value of its current order book.