May/June 1997
Well-established and respected throughout Europe, Industrias Hidráulicas has paved the way for its Moros scrap processing equipment to become a familiar name—and sight—in North America.
By Eileen Zagone
Eileen Zagone is an associate editor of Scrap.
Though the name Moros may not jump to mind when U.S. recyclers think about processing equipment, this brand of machinery is far from the new kid on the scrap recycling block.
The truth is that Moros equipment, manufactured by Industrias Hidráulicas s.a. (Zaragoza, Spain), can be found hard at work in scrap operations all over the world, says Miguel Clavel, who manages the firm with his brother, Clemente. In Spain, in fact, Moros has more than a 90-percent share of the scrap processing equipment market, Miguel Clavel estimates, adding that Moros also has a significant presence and is well-regarded in the rest of Europe.
And through strategic growth and innovative international partnerships, Industrias Hidráulicas is poised to give the Moros name a presence for itself in the North American scrap equipment market.
Building an International Business
The Moros equipment line traces its name to Angel Moros Yague—the Clavel brothers’ uncle—who founded Industrias Hidráulicas in 1966 as an outgrowth of a business that produced agricultural equipment and hydraulic presses.
Today, the company, strategically headquartered between Madrid and Barcelona, manufactures a broad array of equipment for processing ferrous and nonferrous scrap, paper, and plastics, including guillotine shears, hydraulic alligator shears, mobile and stationary balers, cable strippers, and paper shredders.
According to Clavel, Industrias Hidráulicas started selling its equipment outside of Spain in the 1970s, first in the United Kingdom and then in Holland, Germany, and beyond. To enhance its international reach even more, in 1987 it acquired all shares of Maatschappij Bronneberg Helmond b.v. (M.B.H.), a Helmond, Holland-based scrap equipment manufacturer, in a joint effort with its managing director, Henk van Doorn. Though Industrias Hidráulicas still manufactures some equipment in Holland, Spain remains its primary manufacturing hub, while M.B.H. is more focused on international trade and promotion of Moros products throughout northern Europe.
Through the joint efforts of its headquarters staff, Dutch partners, and other reps around the world, Industrias Hidráulicas grew rapidly and Moros equipment began to proliferate. In other words, everything was going great. But one piece was missing: penetration of the well-developed—and enormous—North American scrap market.
Enter Moros/North America.
A Partnership Is Born
Even though there were a number of small Moros products at work in America, the real bridge between Spain and the United States for Moros products began to be built, oddly enough, in China in 1994.
As the story goes, Harry Kletter, president and CEO of Industrial Services of America Inc. (ISA) (Louisville, Ky.), attended a Chinese industry exhibition in search of a new shear. After talking with Henk van Doorn at the exhibition, Kletter was intrigued enough with Moros to accept his invitation to visit Industrias Hidráulicas’ manufacturing facility in Spain, as well as several Moros installations throughout Europe.
Kletter was so impressed with what he saw that he purchased a Moros shear and installed it in July 1995. That sale marked the first major Moros installation in the United States.
Meanwhile, another Louisville scrap company—Klempner Bros. Inc.—was in the market for a new shear. After seeing the Moros exhibit at ISRI’s convention two years ago, Jay Klempner, the firm’s president and CEO, headed to Europe himself to check out Industrias Hidráulicas’ manufacturing facility and see the equipment working in the field. He, too, liked what he saw. “I went over their machines with a fine-tooth comb and determined that they are extremely solid and well-designed from a variety of different angles—the work end, electronics, and price,” Klempner says.
The result was that Klempner Bros. purchased a Moros HP-1250-150 guillotine shear—the largest Moros model—and installed the machine late last year.
These two U.S. installations gave the Moros line a foothold in the United States, much to the delight of Clavel and van Doorn, who were then actively trying to expand into the North American market. Still, two sales did not a significant presence make.
That all changed with the formation in March 1996 of Moros/North America, a joint venture of Klempner Bros., ISA, Industrias Hidráulicas, and M.B.H. This partnership came about because the two scrap processors thought the Moros products they purchased were “the greatest thing since sliced bread,” says Ed List, head of marketing for the Louisville-based venture. “We then wanted to share this with the American scrap community.” Or, as Klempner explains his reasons behind the partnership, “I already made the bet and bought the machine, so I figured I may as well try to get into something else.”
Far from entering the venture cavalierly, however, both Klempner and Kletter vowed from the outset that they would only associate themselves with Moros/ North America if it produced equipment that truly offered excellent quality. They wanted to make sure that the equipment they’d be representing would meet the high standards of North American processors. “Good news travels fast and bad news travels faster in the scrap business,” Klempner notes. “If somebody has a problem with a piece of equipment, then rest assured everyone will hear about it.”
On the surface, it may seem unlikely that individuals and companies with such disparate backgrounds and locations could band together in a workable partnership. But, as the partners have discovered, each brought strengths that have created a venture that is more than the sum of its parts. ISA, for instance, had not only an extensive scrap processing background, but also 30 years of experience in selling scrap processing equipment, so “we were familiar with that end of the business,” says Tim Myers, vice president of ISA. Klempner also brought a firsthand understanding of daily scrap recycling operations, as well as expertise in hands-on equipment repair and maintenance.
This blending and sharing of knowledge between diverse players has given Industrias Hidráulicas—and each of the partners—a unique competitive advantage in the equipment market, they say. “It does not make sense to build a fence around yourself,” Myers says. “Success depends on a good interchange of ideas to create the best product at the best price.” He adds that “it just makes sense to involve people from different aspects of the industry—the engineers, the processors, the maintenance workers—so you can get input from each of them to make the best equipment possible.”
Among the partnership’s advantages, Klempner notes, “We’re able to give the kind of support that a customer needs, expects, and demands.” He’s referring, in particular, to the customer-oriented staff in Zaragoza, plus the staffs at Klempner Bros. and ISA, which are “crucial assets” to the venture, he says, because they work with Moros machines every day and will be maintenance resources for other North American companies that purchase the equipment.
Establishing a High-Tech Reputation
One of the uphill battles Moros/North America has faced thus far is that U.S. recyclers don’t typically think of Spain as a leading producer of processing equipment, or for that matter as a center of cutting-edge engineering and manufacturing.
Spain, however, is recognized throughout Europe as a sophisticated high-technology country. The problem is “just that a lot of people in North America don’t know this,” says Myers, and “unfortunately a lot of negative stereotypes still persist about Spain that are just not true.” As Klempner adds, “People always think of Germany as technologically advanced, but we’ve found some surprising technology at work in Spain.” He goes on to describe Industrias Hidráulicas’ manufacturing employees as industrious, well-educated, and multilingual.
Klempner knows this firsthand thanks to his eye-opening visit to Industrias Hidráulicas’ production facility in Zaragoza, which offered proof of the advanced technology and manufacturing techniques that go into making Moros equipment.
According to Clavel, the company has invested heavily in the latest technology and is committed to staying up-to-date. He points, in particular, to the firm’s CNC machining center, a manufacturing tool that can machine parts up to 65 feet long, 16 feet high, and 13 feet wide. It can also handle a variety of machining tasks such as milling, drilling, boring, and lathing. These tasks used to be done by separate pieces of equipment, which required the piece under construction to be moved from one machine to the next, adding time to the production cycle. The machining center also provides high accuracy and precision, reducing the costs of future maintenance, says van Doorn.
Industrias Hidráulicas has also recently installed a huge hydraulic welding positioner that can hold and completely rotate components weighing up to 100 tons so they can be flat-welded. The time savings afforded by these machinery enhancements has allowed the company to schedule more work, increase efficiency, and, thus, reduce costs, Clavel asserts. These savings are passed on to the customer, Klempner says, noting that he paid 15 to 20 percent less for his Moros shear than he would have paid for a comparable model by any other manufacturer.
While Industrias Hidráulicas’ high-tech manufacturing technology impressed Klempner, he was equally pleased with the “phenomenal” workmanship of its employees, which makes the difference between good equipment and superior equipment. For starters, he notes, the firm’s engineers have “protected those items that can break as well as they can be protected and integrated enough safety measures that prevent you from putting force on something so that it will break.”
When he visited European processing facilities that were operating 15-to-20-year-old Moros shears, Klempner asked how many times a particular part had been replaced. Invariably, he says, the answer was “never.” Again he was impressed for he had replaced the same parts several times over the same time period on his non-Moros shears.
Industrias Hidráulicas also builds longevity into its Moros shears by making the crosshead a single steel casting rather than a fabricated component. Plus, says van Doorn, all wear parts can be replaced with parts that are readily available throughout the world, which guarantees there is no delay in getting replacements from overseas suppliers.
One particularly appealing feature of the Moros shear, says Klempner, is its adjustable angle side-compression system, which he describes as “fantastic.” Instead of using standard parallel compression of material in the charging box, which may not create sufficient force to compress the load, the operator can switch to adjustable mode and apply increased pressure—up to 80 percent more—precisely where it is needed to compress the load. When processing especially strong scrap, Klempner explains, compressing it can be likened to trying to break an egg in your palm—it’s almost impossible. But if you find a point of pressure on one end of the egg, it will break easily. It’s the same with a load of scrap, he says, noting that “once you get that first crease, the rest is easy.”
This adjustable angle side-compression system has made a big difference in Klempner’s shearing operation. As he notes, about “60 to 70 percent of the material we used to classify as torching scrap can now be sheared.”
The importance of a shear’s compression system can’t be overemphasized, asserts Clavel. While other shears may only boast fast cutting times, a less efficient compression system to process the scrap before cutting may require material to be removed or repositioned to permit shearing. In such cases, the faster cutting time is essentially counteracted. “You have to consider how efficiently the whole process works from compression to cutting,” he notes.
Such efficiency will be crucial in the future. As the industry becomes more consolidated and competition increases, Klempner explains, maximizing efficiency, reducing downtime, and getting the most per hour out of equipment will determine which processors thrive and which fall behind.
Among its other defining features, Industrias Hidráulicas manufactures practically everything in-house because that approach gives it total control over quality as well as the freedom to custom-design equipment. The Moros shear for Klempner Bros., for example, was built with a scale on the loading hopper, a feature that’s not common in the European market. The shear’s electronic control system is also equipped with a modem that can communicate directly with the manufacturer, enabling it to remotely conduct diagnostic tests and troubleshoot problems.
In the bigger picture, Industrias Hidráulicas is committed to adapting to the demands of a changing marketplace and the needs of its customers around the world. “Our goal,” says van Doorn, “is to have one organization that is integrated in all its parts and shares the same strategy of growth through superior design, service, and quality.”
In other words, it won’t be any single aspect that gives Industrias Hidráulicas and its Moros equipment line an edge. It’s all of its characteristics and services combined. As Klempner observes, “Are they doing something that nobody else is doing? Probably not. But I think they do it a little bit better.” He adds, “The whole package is a great value overall.”
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Strengthened by its new partnership and initial sales in the U.S. market, Industrias Hidráulicas seems poised to progress toward its goal of establishing a solid presence in North America. In time, perhaps recyclers will view Spain as the technologically advanced country it is and automatically think of the Moros name when shopping for high-quality scrap processing equipment.
Just because “some recyclers haven’t heard of Moros equipment, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t consider what it could offer their business,” Myers concludes. •
Well-established and respected throughout Europe, Industrias Hidráulicas has paved the way for its Moros scrap processing equipment to become a familiar name—and sight—in North America.