Fiat Kobelco moves on

While HM Plant and Fiat Kobelco were in the High Court, the manufacturer announced the first of its new models - although the distribution route remains unclear.

HM Plant terminated its agreement with CNH in October and Mr Justice Morrison found in favour of the distributor and awarded costs. The distributor successfully argued that its original dealership agreement, dated 1988, was set up to allow HM Plant to continue selling small, medium and large excavators based on Hitachi technology.

Fiat Kobelco sales and marketing vice-president Giuseppe Ferrulli said he had expected the result under English law, adding that the contract was drafted under Italian law, and the manufacturer was considering appealing. He said any talks to appoint alternative dealers are on hold.

Once appointed, the new dealer(s) will have a range of 10 new mini excavators between 900kg and 4.7t. There will be eight Japanese-built short radius (SR) units, where the turret remains within the width of the tracks, and two Italian-built conventional models at 1.6t and 1.7t.

There will be five larger Japanese-built SR models between 7t and 23.5t, starting with the 20t operating weight 200SR.

n In March, the Evolution range of crawler excavators will be launched with the E165 and E215 replacing their EX predecessors. These will feature air-conditioned cabs and the Mind open-centre hydraulic system, which boosts digging performance by 10% and lift capacity by 15%.

The E145W and the E175W Evolution wheeled excavators will replace the EX135 and EX165. Hydraulic system pressure has increased from 300 bar to 350 bar, giving an extra 7% breakout and 24% traction force controlled by the Mind electronics. Three telehandlers with lift capacities up to 4t will follow in March/April.