Bulk Liquid Road Tankers Fueled by Capral Grunt

The Australian aluminium transport manufacturing industry is in an expansion phase and with an increase in demand, the industry is set to continue to rely on local suppliers like Capral for aluminium extrusions, sheet and plate.

The shipping disruptions caused by Covid-19 over the past two years has strained the local transport manufacturing sector. As the country’s largest manufacturer and distributor of aluminium products, Capral has continued to ease that pressure by keeping up the supply of aluminium products through its six manufacturing sites across Australia.

“Capral has assisted us greatly in the last 12 months on critical delivery requirements due to Covid restrictions,” says Mike Reynolds, who is Holmwood Highgate’s Business Production Manager – Commercial. Holmwood Highgate is one of Capral’s oldest customers – a relationship that has lasted the better part of five decades. Holmwood is Australia’s original manufacturer of high-quality aluminium road tankers, and a market-leader in bulk liquid road tanker manufacturing. Its fuel range features 1,500 litre mini rigid tankers through to multi trailer road trains, on highway and off highway heavy duty models, and custom-built models. It also builds specialised equipment for mining, chemical, and water applications.

Holmwood Highgate’s association with Capral extends back to the days when its Hockney business was part of the original Hockney Alcan enterprise. When Hockney diversified into aluminium tray manufacture, it produced the legendary ‘Alcan’ tray – the very first one-tonne aluminium tray.

Holmwood Highgate purchased the Hockney business in 2000, but it continues to manufacture the Alcan tray under its specialised truck and tray body manufacturing division – Hockney Engineers.

“Since the 70s, Capral is the main supplier of our aluminium extruded products and a crucial part of our daily manufacturing. Today, they also supply to us general aluminium products such as plate, sheet and extruded products. Capral has produced excellent quality products over the years. They have been very supportive in delivering our orders on time,” adds Mike, who’s role as production manager involves overseeing the processing of client orders through engineering, purchasing/stores, and workshop, right down to final delivery.

Holmwood Highgate uses Capral aluminium across a range of its businesses, including mining spec liquid transportation specialist Narwhal Fluid Quip, tank and trailer accessories manufacturer Highgate Engineers, tanker specialist Hockney & Co, and leisure boat manufacturer Runaway Bay Pontoon.

“A very large percentage of what we make is made from aluminium,” says Mark Skinner, Holmwood Highgate’s Principal Engineer. “We’re dedicated road tanker manufacturers for the Australian market. While we manufacture military equipment as well, our predominant focus is on fuel tankers. All of our fuel tankers are made from aluminium,” he adds.

“The quality of the product we source from Capral is excellent. Right from the beginning, the quality has been good. Capral aluminium meets the necessary standards that we need from an engineering point of view. We manufacture based on specific standards that call out for precise aluminium standards and all of Capral’s products comply with our specifications.”

Capral extrudes a comprehensive range of standard and custom shapes up to 420mm wide, 20kg/m weight and 16m length. Available alloys include 6060, 6063, 6106, 6005A, 6082, 6061, 1350, 6101. In addition to aluminium extrusions, the company also supplies powder coating in a wide range of colours and preform cutting, punching and CNC machining operations.

“With the effects of Covid in the last two years, I would like to think that Australia can increase more locally manufactured products. As Holmwood Highgate is only one of many of Capral’s customers, the Australian aluminium transport manufacturing industry will continue to rely on Capral to locally manufacture their products,” Mike says.

Mark agrees with that statement. “In our company, we manufacture a high-quality product. It is a leading product in Australia. As a local manufacturer and a family-owned business we try as much as we can to support local manufacturers and companies that we’ve dealt with for a long time. As Mike said, Holmwood’s relationship with Capral goes back decades and we would look to continue that in the future. We don’t see any reason to move away from Capral,” he says.

Capral’s manufacturing plants are located in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia. Meanwhile, its regional distribution centres support a network of trade centres across NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, SA, NT, and WA.

This Case Study was originally published by Trailer Magazine