Malaysia is a hot spot for access growth in the Southeast Asian market and in recent years has become second only in terms of MEWP population to Singapore – a close neighbour and long-established and mature access market.

Malaysia was certainly one of the countries represented well at the APEX Asia show, as representatives from the growing rental market there showed an interest in the products on display at the exhibition. (See the APEX Asia review in the soon to be pubished November-December 2023 issue of AI).

In just a few years since the pre-Covid market of 2020, the number of MEWPs in the country has grown from an estimated 12,000 units to 20,000, with up 1,500 new scissors expected into the market this year – not bad considering aging used equipment used to be the mainstay, as is the case with most emerging markets. The rise is even more impressive when compared to Singapore’s MEWP population of 25,000 – 30,000 units.

Fast developments

BES Industry is an Malaysia-based aerial specialist rental company with around 500 units in its fleet. The company started in July 2014, and as director of the company Edwin Siew Keab Seong says, “at the time the industry was very young and there were not many rental companies. But it has developed fast since then and is now booming, particularly since the end of the pandemic.”

The growth is thanks to a range of companies moving to Malaysia, such as semi-conductor an solar specialists, due in part to incentives from the government, joining others like Intel and Western Digital.

“When I set up the business 100% of machines were 10 years old or more.” While the rental rates for new and used equipment is not much different, used machines are prone to frequent breakdowns and it is difficult to find mechanics in the country that have knowledge of the equipment duet to it being a young market. “So when we buy new machines we ask them to provide training and then slowly learn from instruction manuals and diagrams.”

Powering up

Alex Tan, a longstanding access expert in Malaysia, who now runs training and distribution company Aerial Global, says the industry is in catch up after the pandemic, with many companies wishing to avoid penalties associated with delaying projects beyond their intended deadline dates.

All these projects need power supply and Malaysia has an abundance of power thanks to the Bakun Damn in the Sarawak region of the country, which is another attraction for power hungry sites like data silos. The country has so much power that there are plans to build an underwater pipeline to Singapore to aid its power requirements.

This, combined with cheap vehicle fuel in the country thanks to further subsidies from the government, set alongside a now stable political situation, all adds to the new growth potential. “The last five years there was chaos in politics which is why mega projects and foreign investment was put on hold.”

Expanding on this, Seong says Malaysia is not yet ready for electric RT equipment because of the cost of diesel. “Fuel is still very cheap compared to other countries, so there are no advantages in 100% electric units.”

However, Seong adds, “The government will gradually bring down subsidies and the electric products will be the trend. That’s why I have started now to meet that trend.”

According to Tan, Malaysia has a large acceptance of China-produced equipment compared to other countries in the region with 70% of the new MEWPs imported to the company this year having Chinese origin. In addition, rental companies from China are also showing an interest in Malaysia. For example, Shanghai Horizon – China’s largest rental company – has set up a pair of offices in the country to sell its used equipment, alongside a small rental entity aimed at Chinese construction companies working in Malaysia.

In addition, from 1 March this year the government has restricted the import of used machines, with stringent inspection rules in place before equipment receives the required certificate of fitness.

“This has encouraged a lot of rental companies to buy more new machine.”

Establishing rental

Indeed, there are now more than 50 rental companies in the country, many of them very small, increasing to the largest TH Tong Heng Machinery which has nearly 2,000 units, says Seaong, while Tan believes the second largest in the market Schmetterling has just over 1,000 units.

They are followed by rental companies with 700 to 800 units until BES, which has around 500, and is easily in the top 10.

Seaong is aiming for 10-15% growth per year, however he says the overall market will expand around 20% per year.

One of the challenges in the markets, Tan says is that, “rental companies are still bringing in used machines that are shifting rental rates downwards. This is a challenge for rental companies trying to focus on new machines.”

A unique factor in the Malaysian access equipment market is its tradition of using truck mounts. Tan believes there are more than 60,000 in the market. Truck mounts were used in Malaysia long before scissors and booms were introduced in any meaningful way and are used in an array of applications.

Their applications are now starting to give way to self propelled access. For example. truck mounts are losing out to boom lifts on long term rent.” More and more boom lifts are replacing the truck mounts.”