Like other heavy equipment manufacturers, SEMCO Inc. of Lamar, Colorado, continues to meet customer needs despite the supply chain being at its worst.
“Some of our main components like hydraulic motors and cylinders have been anywhere from 12 weeks to 20 weeks out,” said John Sutphin, owner of the pump hoist manufacturer. “It’s hard to keep quantities on hand and plan that far out on orders.”
To add to the challenges, Sutphin’s machine lathe that makes its sheaves broke down. It took seven months to get the gear due to it not being in stock in the United States.
“Having an important machine be down for that long also affects our ability to keep our end customers up and running,” he said. “It causes a major chain reaction for each aspect of the working man.”
Sutphin adds that there’s been a truck shortage, possibly due to the electronic shortages.
“We have remained steady, not down too much from the past few years,” Sutphin said. “Things were pretty normal here during the pandemic and we were fully open for business.
“We found that a lot of our regular customers were buying more units versus new customers. As always, California customers were getting new units due to their emissions laws, so we can always count on them getting new every few years.”
Bill Longmire, president of Longmire Swaging Inc. in Lemoore, California, currently has seven SEMCO rigs (see photo above right) with another one expected around September. Most of the company’s work is in California, Nevada, and Utah; it also does work in Kansas, Idaho, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Florida. It installs about 1200-1300 repairs a year.
“We are very fond of SEMCO,” Longmire said. “The rigs are very clean with lots of deck space. SEMCO provides excellent service. When we need a part, they ship it immediately.”
— by Mike Price