Why this buyer came to us
A regional civil contractor in eastern Senegal was awarded an 18 km rural road upgrade. The 20-tonne class excavator they had reserved locally fell through two weeks before mobilisation. They needed a CAT 320 family unit on the ground in roughly five weeks, delivered EXW or FOB, with a written condition report they could show to their financing partner.
This is the kind of brief we treat as normal, not as a rush job: the contractor knew the machine class (CAT 320 family, 20-tonne operating weight, Tier-3 engine acceptable), knew the destination (Dakar port, then 600 km of haul), and knew their budget ceiling. What they did not know — and what they asked us to be honest about — was the actual condition of any individual unit we could ship.
What we sourced
Within the 320 family we held a 2020 unit at our Zhengzhou yard, 5,600 working hours, intake grade B (working order, paint and undercarriage tired). The buyer agreed to a remanufactured delivery standard, which means our published 4-level standard applies end-to-end: full strip-down, hydraulic-system test bench, undercarriage refurbishment, engine top-end service, new paint to the buyer's RAL, and a written 29-checkpoint sign-off.
We sent photos and a draft inspection report on day 2. The contractor flagged two concerns: undercarriage wear was heavier than they had hoped, and the cab air-con compressor had a slow leak. We agreed to address both in the reman work, with a discount if the undercarriage pin wear exceeded a written threshold after measurement.
What the remanufacturing looked like
Strip-down was on day 4, paint-strip on day 5, frame shot-blast on day 6. By day 12 the undercarriage pins had been measured: three were within tolerance, two were outside (0.4 mm and 0.6 mm over the 1.5 mm limit). We replaced those two pins, did the bushings on the matching side, and re-shimmed the track tension. The air-con compressor was replaced with a new unit (not rebuilt). The hydraulic system was bench-tested at 32 MPa for 90 minutes with no internal leakage observed.
Paint was completed on day 18 in Caterpillar yellow to the buyer's RAL reference. Final 29-checkpoint sign-off was on day 26. The full report, with photos at each step, was shared with the buyer on day 28. Loading was on day 34, B/L was issued on day 36, the vessel sailed on day 38, and the unit arrived at Port of Dakar on day 41 from the original PO date.
What the buyer did next
The contractor pre-cleared the unit through a Dakar-based customs broker and trucked it 600 km to the road job. They commissioned the machine themselves and reported back at the 200-hour mark: no leaks, no alarms, undercarriage temperature within spec. The 29-checkpoint report and the undercarriage measurement record went into their project file, which their financing partner had already asked to see at the disbursement stage.
What we learned from this engagement
Remanufactured is the right call when the deadline is real, the budget is fixed, and the buyer has to show a written standard to a third party. The 29-checkpoint report is the only document that survives a financing partner's review — glossy photos do not.