The leading mining equipment manufacturing company

The leading mining equipment manufacturing company in 1998 was the Milwaukee-based Harnischfeger Industries. Harnischfeger's operations included P&H MinePro Services, which produced above-ground mining equipment and Joy Mining Machinery, which focused on below-ground equipment, as well as a pulp and papermaking machinery division. With its mining equipment sales for 1998 topping $1.2 billion, Harnischfeger controlled about 70 percent of the total market. Despite its considerable size, though, Harnischfeger had fallen on hard times. Like others in the industry, it struggled to overcome disappearing markets in Asia and Russia. Moreover, the company sought to diversify in the late 1990s, which left it dangerously overextended. Harnischfeger cut 20 percent of its work force in August of 1998. In 1999, the company was forced to enter Chapter 11 restructuring proceedings. Other key players in the industry included Texas-based Letourneau, Inc., Bucyrus International, and Svedala Industries, Inc., which manufactured mineral processing equipment, grinding mills and crushers.