Welcome to the first issue of Hoist, the factory crane magazine brought to you by the team behind Wilmington Publishing’s long-established publication Cranes Today.
We plan to bring you news, views and information on procuring, supplying, using, maintaining, upgrading and repairing electric overhead travelling (EOT) gantry cranes in the fullest range of industrial applications around the globe.
Overhead cranes and lifting equipment are the solutions of choice for all sorts of load handling applications around the globe. Indoors, outdoors, in vast production halls or cramped work-shops, overhead crane and hoisting technology can be bought off the shelf or custom-made to supply the answer for virtually any lifting need.
The increasing realisation that overhead cranes do not necessarily have to be confined to “standard” applications in factories, along with the fact that worldwide demand remains quite buoyant, is probably one of the reasons why the pace of product development accelerates.
Technological development has been accompanied by continuing re-structuring of the global EOT business in recent years. There have been many acquisitions and much rationalisation. The biggest deal in the pipeline now is the divestiture of the P&H Material Handling unit from the Harnischfeger fold.
As we report on the next page, Chartwell Investments is set to pay $340m for an 80% stake. KCI Konecranes’ shareholders and others are entitled to disagree, of course, but we believe that it is surely good news for the industry that P&H remains a major independent player, rather than absorbed by a competitor.
While P&H now simply enters a new phase of its long corporate history, this magazine’s life just begins. For Hoist to be the success we intend it to be, for it to capture your interest and to help you in your job, it is important for us to receive feedback.
Please send us any details of innovations or unusual installations that you believe your colleagues around the globe might benefit from learning about.
And let us also have your opinions on any issues raised, either on these pages or perhaps in your own workplace.
