Ahlmann swing loaders
in the Antilles

For over forty years, Ahlmann Nederland machines have been finding their way to the Caribbean. What began in 1984 with a single Ahlmann AS 12 in Aruba has grown into a long-standing relationship with customers on all six islands of the Netherlands Antilles. The most recent delivery is a special one: this time, it wasn’t just a machine that made the crossing, but our own truck-trailer combination.

The origins of this special relationship date back to 1984. Gebr. van den Oord Ammerzoden BV, the construction company that would later become Ahlmann Nederland, took on a major project in Aruba at that time. To pave the container port, various machines were shipped from the Netherlands to the island, including an Ahlmann AS 12 skid-steer loader.

After the project was completed, the idea arose to sell the AS12 in Aruba rather than shipping it back to the Netherlands. The Aruban Road Construction Company became the new owner, and this marked the beginning of a partnership that would ultimately extend far beyond Aruba.

From one skid-steer loader to all six islands

In the years that followed, several Ahlmann machines made their way to the Caribbean—not only to Aruba, but also to Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius. Over the years, we regularly received photos of our machines at work. Often in settings that are just a little different from what we’re used to here in the Netherlands.

Just how sustainable that first step in 1984 turned out to be became abundantly clear years later. During a working visit to Aruba in 2010, we came across the original AS 12 again. At that time, 26 years after delivery, the machine was still in daily use, with over 36,000 hours on the clock.