Tractor News Midway Sales (Australia) closes doors

[Chris D]

Haven't seen this reported on the forum but Midway Sales in Australia have closed their doors and did so before Covid 19 reared its head. They, for many years, sold DongFeng, labeled separately as DongFeng and East Wind as well as Branson (Kukje). And they sold a lot of them. I regularly see the yellow EastWinds in use and know a few owners - most of them happy with their purchase. The only reason I post this is that it might direct a few local owners to these pages for any help they might need. Midway seemed (?) to be a pretty supportive dealer and the Australian market will probably be the poorer for their closing. I'm a long time owner of a Chinese tractor and see these machines as a good if unrefined product that requires a canny, hands - on owner or a reasonable level of dealer support. If maintained and serviced fairly, they are an honest and cost - effective helper on any property.

In Australia there are a few stable dealers of certain brands and others that appear to loosely represent one more of the Chinese 25, 25, 40 , 45 hp and occasionally larger tractors. This hit or miss approach causes would - be purchasers to lean to Japanese, South Korean or Indian brands that have quite stable dealers supporting them with a promise or guarantee of support and spares which every tractor and tractor owner requires. There must be 10's of thousands of the 25 - 50 hp Chinese tractors in use outside of China. One might assume that any deficiencies they collectively have would have fed back to the manufacturers to effect a level of improvement in their build quality, reliability and maintainability. I hope so but doubt it....

I welcome longstanding Australian dealers to weigh in to this discussion. I'm sure a few Australians read this section of the forum.
Chris

 

[riptides]

Haven't seen this reported on the forum but Midway Sales in Australia have closed their doors and did so before Covid 19 reared its head. They, for many years, sold DongFeng, labeled separately as DongFeng and East Wind as well as Branson (Kukje). And they sold a lot of them. I regularly see the yellow EastWinds in use and know a few owners - most of them happy with their purchase. The only reason I post this is that it might direct a few local owners to these pages for any help they might need. Midway seemed (?) to be a pretty supportive dealer and the Australian market will probably be the poorer for their closing. I'm a long time owner of a Chinese tractor and see these machines as a good if unrefined product that requires a canny, hands - on owner or a reasonable level of dealer support. If maintained and serviced fairly, they are an honest and cost - effective helper on any property.

In Australia there are a few stable dealers of certain brands and others that appear to loosely represent one more of the Chinese 25, 25, 40 , 45 hp and occasionally larger tractors. This hit or miss approach causes would - be purchasers to lean to Japanese, South Korean or Indian brands that have quite stable dealers supporting them with a promise or guarantee of support and spares which every tractor and tractor owner requires. There must be 10's of thousands of the 25 - 50 hp Chinese tractors in use outside of China. One might assume that any deficiencies they collectively have would have fed back to the manufacturers to effect a level of improvement in their build quality, reliability and maintainability. I hope so but doubt it....

I welcome longstanding Australian dealers to weigh in to this discussion. I'm sure a few Australians read this section of the forum.
Chris

Dang... is the market not that good for farming down there? It seems like a lot of tractor dealerships are shuttering down, more so now with the virus.

Good luck to you all.

 

[Hay Dude]

Haven't seen this reported on the forum but Midway Sales in Australia have closed their doors and did so before Covid 19 reared its head. They, for many years, sold DongFeng, labeled separately as DongFeng and East Wind as well as Branson (Kukje). And they sold a lot of them. I regularly see the yellow EastWinds in use and know a few owners - most of them happy with their purchase. The only reason I post this is that it might direct a few local owners to these pages for any help they might need. Midway seemed (?) to be a pretty supportive dealer and the Australian market will probably be the poorer for their closing. I'm a long time owner of a Chinese tractor and see these machines as a good if unrefined product that requires a canny, hands - on owner or a reasonable level of dealer support. If maintained and serviced fairly, they are an honest and cost - effective helper on any property.

In Australia there are a few stable dealers of certain brands and others that appear to loosely represent one more of the Chinese 25, 25, 40 , 45 hp and occasionally larger tractors. This hit or miss approach causes would - be purchasers to lean to Japanese, South Korean or Indian brands that have quite stable dealers supporting them with a promise or guarantee of support and spares which every tractor and tractor owner requires. There must be 10's of thousands of the 25 - 50 hp Chinese tractors in use outside of China. One might assume that any deficiencies they collectively have would have fed back to the manufacturers to effect a level of improvement in their build quality, reliability and maintainability. I hope so but doubt it....

I welcome longstanding Australian dealers to weigh in to this discussion. I'm sure a few Australians read this section of the forum.
Chris

Just curious, and I mean this as no slap to owning a Chinese tractor: did you ever wish an Australian Company would open up and build a tractor for your countrymen and even for export? I love Australia and the people there. I bet they would build an excellent tractor and probably an excellent farm truck, too.
Your thoughts?

 

[Chris D]

Just curious, and I mean this as no slap to owning a Chinese tractor: did you ever wish an Australian Company would open up and build a tractor for your countrymen and even for export? I love Australia and the people there. I bet they would build an excellent tractor and probably an excellent farm truck, too.
Your thoughts?

In the late 1950's through to the 1970's, Australians built Chamberlain tractors. These were all locally made bar their later engines. The originals made a big opposed twin gasoline/kerosene and eventually a diesel version. Power ranged from 40 to 60 HP and they were a good, fairy priced machine. Engines were originally their own before they settled on Perkins and GM diesels and pushed power out to 90HP. They were eventually bought by John Deere and their aged plants steadily closed down. We've also built a variety of large HP articulated tractors in the style of the earlier Steigers and Versatiles. But only in quantities of 10's or 100's. I doubt it'll come back. Our labour costs are pretty high now and I can't see an investor putting up dollars for what would be a risky enterprise. Like the USA and Canada, we use a lot of large power tractors on our bigger farms (ranches). There's a good spread of JD, Versatile, Case, MF, Fendt and the like. In the mid levels, we pretty much follow what you folks use. And below 100 hp, there's a good mix of Kubota, Kioti, Mahindra amongst many others. The Chinese tractors are popular at a hobby/lifestyle farm level along with Japanese and S Korean tractors.

To your question however, I think not. I'd love us to but it isn't likely. We've recently closed our last automobile plant - Holden, a division of GM. At one point in the 1960's, they made one third of cars sold here. Some of them have found their way to the USA badged as Pontiacs. I send my best regards to you folk and wish you good health and good seasons. Chris

 

[DLTTrekkers]

I do believe it can by that China change their garantee pollisy and do not honner it !
Dealer murt pay all warrenty work and parts .China gives them nothing back.

 

[craka]

Just curious, and I mean this as no slap to owning a Chinese tractor: did you ever wish an Australian Company would open up and build a tractor for your countrymen and even for export? I love Australia and the people there. I bet they would build an excellent tractor and probably an excellent farm truck, too.
Your thoughts?

I'm sure we do. Unfortunately most of our industrial manufacturing companies have gone by the wayside over the years. We no longer produce any cars here, I think we may still manufacture though not Australian owned truck for Volvo/Mack. I believe we still have one ship building company we used to have several one closed their doors a couple years back when at the time they we struggling for works and at the time the government had tenders out for naval ships to be build however tenders were not won by any Australian company and were given to a Korean ship building company. (Shakes head beyond belief).

There is Australian manufactures of Ag and tractor implements etc, in the mix of all the overseas contenders.

Apart from food produce, Australian made products need to be seeked out. Most of it unfortunately I think, and too much of it is imported from overseas with a big proportion being China.

 

[Hay Dude]

I'm sure we do. Unfortunately most of our industrial manufacturing companies have gone by the wayside over the years. We no longer produce any cars here, I think we may still manufacture though not Australian owned truck for Volvo/Mack. I believe we still have one ship building company we used to have several one closed their doors a couple years back when at the time they we struggling for works and at the time the government had tenders out for naval ships to be build however tenders were not won by any Australian company and were given to a Korean ship building company. (Shakes head beyond belief).

There is Australian manufactures of Ag and tractor implements etc, in the mix of all the overseas contenders.

Apart from food produce, Australian made products need to be seeked out. Most of it unfortunately I think, and too much of it is imported from overseas with a big proportion being China.

That’s so sad and I think that has taken hold in USA as well. I can’t imagine living in a country, actually a continent, with a highly educated hard working population that is so dependent upon foreign manufacturing.
How does this happen? Why is this allowed? How can anyone feel secure having literally everything made for them?
I mean this as no slight to you or Australia. Like I said, I love the Australian people and their spirit of rugged individualism.
Is there any “buzz” among your citizenry to change back to becoming independent and allowing enterprise/tax incentivized areas to promote manufacturing?

 

[Chris D]

That痴 so sad and I think that has taken hold in USA as well. I can稚 imagine living in a country, actually a continent, with a highly educated hard working population that is so dependent upon foreign manufacturing.
How does this happen? Why is this allowed? How can anyone feel secure having literally everything made for them?
I mean this as no slight to you or Australia. Like I said, I love the Australian people and their spirit of rugged individualism.
Is there any 澱uzz among your citizenry to change back to becoming independent and allowing enterprise/tax incentivized areas to promote manufacturing?

We may be drifting off the topic but I'd like to respond because your question is relevant and timely. This Covid 19 matter has shone a light on how dependant we are upon imported goods, particularly non food ones. It'd be easy to remind everyone that our population is only 25 miliion but I look to South Korea ~50m, Taiwan ~25m, Sweden ~11m, Finland ~6m amongst others who manage to manufacture sophisticated products and even lead the world with some of them. We are a huge exporter of natural gas but we refine little of our own hydrocarbons here. Closed those refineries years ago. Our liquid fuels are almost 100% sourced from outside Australia so one of the govt. initiatives that flowed from the Corona outbreak was to buy up a reasonable volume of fuels to give us a buffer in the future. Ironically it'll be stored in the USA because our local storage capacity is small.

Is there a buzz in our population to make or add value to more stuff here? Not really. The 'silent' majority tend to not make too much noise and just vote (compulsory here) each few years. The vocal ones jump on popular issues like climate change and often just assume that the things they need will always be available at their local shopping centre or on Amazon.com. We watched the emergence of a patriotic lift in the USA in 2016 and that surprised many around the world. I'm most interested to see the further effect of that in terms of whether it can grow your own manufacturing base or return it to when it was (more) significant. Unfortunately I believe it needs a prolonged food supply crisis to initiate any real action in those living in first world countries - that hasn't happened here since the 1940's. I'm cynical enough to forecast that not much will change in our level of manufacturing after we come out of Covid 19 mode. We'll remain very good primary producers, miners, metallurgists, tour hosts and occasional manufacturers of niche machines. We are darn good at a lot of things but not making tractors or their like (profitably).
Chris

 

[Hay Dude]

We may be drifting off the topic but I'd like to respond because your question is relevant and timely. This Covid 19 matter has shone a light on how dependant we are upon imported goods, particularly non food ones. It'd be easy to remind everyone that our population is only 25 miliion but I look to South Korea ~50m, Taiwan ~25m, Sweden ~11m, Finland ~6m amongst others who manage to manufacture sophisticated products and even lead the world with some of them. We are a huge exporter of natural gas but we refine little of our own hydrocarbons here. Closed those refineries years ago. Our liquid fuels are almost 100% sourced from outside Australia so one of the govt. initiatives that flowed from the Corona outbreak was to buy up a reasonable volume of fuels to give us a buffer in the future. Ironically it'll be stored in the USA because our local storage capacity is small.

Is there a buzz in our population to make or add value to more stuff here? Not really. The 'silent' majority tend to not make too much noise and just vote (compulsory here) each few years. The vocal ones jump on popular issues like climate change and often just assume that the things they need will always be available at their local shopping centre or on Amazon.com. We watched the emergence of a patriotic lift in the USA in 2016 and that surprised many around the world. I'm most interested to see the further effect of that in terms of whether it can grow your own manufacturing base or return it to when it was (more) significant. Unfortunately I believe it needs a prolonged food supply crisis to initiate any real action in those living in first world countries - that hasn't happened here since the 1940's. I'm cynical enough to forecast that not much will change in our level of manufacturing after we come out of Covid 19 mode. We'll remain very good primary producers, miners, metallurgists, tour hosts and occasional manufacturers of niche machines. We are darn good at a lot of things but not making tractors or their like (profitably).
Chris

Thanks, Chris. It’s good to hear other points of view from other countries.
We had a horrible rash of factory and industry closures here in the 2000-2017 years. My area saw steel mills close and actually be torn down to never return. Railroad tracks torn out and paved over for bicycle paths.
Many actually naive enough to call that “progress”