The second data set covers built-up trolley hoist units and complete overhead cranes, though it is more likely to consist mostly of the former – few companies would pay to ship steel girders any real distance.
This second, cranes graph is also slightly harder to interpret than the top because it represents far fewer, but more expensive, orders. These built-up trolley hoists cost around $30,000-$50,000 each. Also, the total sales volume of imported overhead cranes were, in most years, almost always less than half that of hoists, excepting 1998.
What this means is that a few big orders can slant the whole year. That would explain why China appears as the biggest importer in 1998, ’99, ’02, ’03 and ’04, but does not show up at all in the other years. In contrast, even big orders of low-value product in the hoist graph would not make so much of an impact, and would be smoothed out.
All the same, some US distributors and Chinese manufacturers are making some serious cash in large hoists – a total of $160m is shown in this range over seven years, an average of $23m per year. And this business is not where one might naturally expect it – in easy-to-manufacture lever and hand chain hoists, but in big, engineered product.
