MST has recently moved to a new depot, in Westfield, Cumbernauld. The 42-year old company – which has moved away from the fuller “Midland Steel Traders” moniker in its promotional materials – is a well-established supplier of undercarriage components, buckets and wear parts for sectors such as construction, quarrying and mining, with in-house service expertise and a seemingly detailed understanding of the things that go wrong with these kinds of parts.
Looking at the market in general, director Alan Montgomery insists that while it’s easy to gain the impression of a “stack high and sell ‘em cheap” philosophy, MST has always worked at the quality end of the market and prides themselves on the quality of service they provide.
In the bucket tip and wear parts market MST works with Partners such as ESCO and Combi and in the new bucket and the bucket repair department they only use the Swedish steel company SSAB, supplier of Hardox & Weldox etc. In applications like quarrying and mining, many people use mild or high yield steel, but he suggests Hardox components can last two or three times as long in abrasive applications, with wear capabilities that are “second to none”. It’s mainly down to the manufacturing process, he says. The material is rolled and quenched in such a way that it is flawless, unlike other manufacturers.
On the undercarriage side, the company supplies parts for the majority of bulldozers and excavators in the marketplace. MST’s new Cumbernauld facility will continue to carry out undercarraige overhauls and bucket repairs as they have always done in Scotland, but the larger warehouse will become the national distribution centre for the Mini-Max range of Rubber Tracks and mini undercarraige parts. They will now carry around 1000 Rubber Tracks in stock at the new depot.
MST has always worked with high-quality suppliers and that includes their Minimax undercarriage components – the name a contraction of “minimum cost” and “maximum quality” – which he says offers “the right quality product, at the right price”.
