Bring on the heavies

At the SSL workshop, foremen in the process of fixing the top of an excavator to its bottom counterpart. Salaries for experts i

SIMPANG Pulai near Ipoh is said to be one of the most concentrated centres for buying used heavy machinery. The pioneering companies that got the ball rolling back in the late 1970s and early 1990s were SSL Heavy Machinery, Chong and Ho, Sun Ma, and Mun Fatt (now known as Changlin).

Today, the scene has become more robust, with 30 companies occupying the Simpang Pulai stretch of Jalan Raja Nazrin Shah, offering equipment for earthworks, mining, construction, quarries and plantations. Rovin Choi, general manager of SSL Heavy Machinery, recounts how his father-in-law, who started business as Ho and Sons during the1970s in Jelapang, Ipoh, rose from backhoe apprentice to end up as a bankrupt only to re-emerge as a leading player in the used heavy machinery business.