B & M construction for 2002

With B & M building 5 coasters in the European and Asian market this year how many US coasters do you anticipate.     I just wondered , because they have a limited number they build each year.  

There is no magic number that determines how many rides they can build. If the fabricators can churn out a dozen sets of tracks and trains, that's how many they'll build. With everyone talking about scaling back their capital spending, you can bet they'll build every ride they can.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
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B&M's coaster construction is limited only by how many parks order their designs.  It is already known that a B&M coaster will be going to SFNE and I am sure that a few parks will make annoucements soon regarding B&M installations for 2002.

To do their job well, a coaster manufacturer needs to perform a number of functions in order to produce a coaster.  These include design, fabrication, construction coordination, and start up.  While the first 2 can be subcontracted to a greater or lesser extent, the manufacturer must still have enought coverage on them to make sure that they are done right.  The other two are pretty limited in the amount that they can be farmed out. 

If you try to build too many coasters at once or innovate too much you get into the kind of mess that Vekoma found themselves in this year. So, yes there is a limit, but I don't know where B&M's limit is.

I disagree about Vekoma's problems. Their problems are the result of unproven engineering and offering credit to Six Flags. B&M engineering has gone relatively unchanged in almost ten years now and I doubt they're financing the rides.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

I was just thinking that they normally only build a handful of rides,  I hope they build several rides. 

Anytime a contractor builds something, he doesn't receive final payment until it is complete and delivered.  It makes no difference if he is dealing directly with the end customer or with an intermediary such as a bank.  In many cases construction contracts even call for a retention of 10-15% which is held up for a year or so after completion before it is paid to ensure that the supplier makes any corrections required. 

Anyone who has fiduciary responsibility for a company's or bank's funds would be foolish to pay until a coaster of other construction item is delivered and functioning.  In the case of a bank official there is even a possibility of going to jail for paying for something that isn't properly completed. 
Vekoma's overextension was in engineering rather than fabrication or construction, but you must have all of the pieces of the puzzle to make thing work.  If you overextend yourself in one area, it makes no difference that you are OK in the other areas.

To produce a coaster, yoy have to sell it, design it, engineer it, fabricate it, install it, and start it up.  Each of these must be done for the mechanical, the civil, and the electrical aspects of the coaster.  Miss just one piece of the puzzle, and you are in trouble.  (On some poratables you don't have to worry about installation and startup is very limited.)

B&M typically builds 3 to 7 coasters per year, so I would think that they could possibly stretch to build 8 to 10 if they want to. 

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 10/2/2001. ***

*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 10/2/2001. ***

bryansmith,

To answer your question B&Ms are expensive, not everyone can afford them.

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VFF,  I understand that they are expensive,  my original question was more based on the fact they are building six already, and only once is announced for the USA.   I know they build around 6 + a year.   That is why I asked if they anyone thought they would increase a larger amount of rides for the year.

I know that Premier Rides limits their rides intentionally, but, just look at 1999 and you'll see that B&M doesn't.
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