Mecano-Reja SA has bought out its partner and begun manufacturing the Mast Explorer rough-terrain forklift in a new facility in Archena, Spain.

Mecano-Reja foreign sales manager Guillermo Busse said the company bought out Italian partner Mast srl's share in the product in June, and the first Spanish-made unit would roll off the production line next week.

The Mast Explorer is a rough-terrain forklift with capacities across 10 models, ranging from one tonne to five tonnes. All but the smallest of the range, the H10D, feature Perkins engines and Hydrostatic transmissions. The H10D is powered by a Lombardini engine and has a Mecanica transmission.

Mecano-Reja has jointly produced the forklift with Mast since 1996.

Mr Busse said Mecano-Reja had sold 35 units from existing stock since ending its ties with Mast. The new factory, which has created 10 new jobs and tripled the company's workload, featured two production lines and a bank of spare parts for every model.

"This new facility has the capacity to produce two machines daily, but initially we will be happy with one machine a day," Mr Busse said. "With very few major brands in the European rough-terrain forklift market, we're looking forward to giving dealers and end users something innovative."

Mr Busse said Mecano-Reja was looking for new distributors in Europe and throughout the world.