A new report claims miners’ satisfaction levels with their suppliers are on the rise.

Timetric’s latest survey, ‘Winning and Retaining Business in the Australian Mining Equipment Sector, 2016’, says big firms are more satisfied with their main equipment suppliers than they have been in years.

The analysts say there has been an increase in support in the maintenance and service areas, and that replacement parts are becoming more available.

The survey covered 100 mine managers and decision-makers across Australia in 2014 and 2015.

It found that survey respondents rated their supplier on various factors between 7 and 8.4, on a scale from 1 for very dissatisfied to 10 for very satisfied.

Previously ratings ranged between 6.2 and 7.6.

“Notable areas of improvement included the ‘availability of replacement parts’, ‘maintenance and service costs’ and the ‘depth of data available’,” Timetric said.

 “Miners specifically cited [these issues] as important when selecting a supplier and ones in need of improvement, especially as they sought to reduce costs and improve productivity. The improvements in data availability have also helped miners in measuring and managing equipment performance.”

“With their customers facing severe cost pressures amid low commodity prices, suppliers have focused on improving satisfaction with equipment cost and productivity, hence the high ratings areas in these and many other cost-related areas such as total life course, price and energy efficiency,” said Clifford Smee, lead analyst at Timetric’s Mining Intelligence Centre.