The lifting market in Western Europe may have stagnated due to the Covid pandemic, but its potential stability has prepared it for a recovery. Karen Falwell reports

As some Western European countries struggle to deal with the third wave of Covid-19 and new variants of the virus emerge, the global pandemic continues to dominate economic and commercial activities.

The 2021 winter economic forecast issued by the European Commission in February indicates that the EU economy will recover faster than initially expected, but now we must look at the impact (if any) of the latest wave of infections and blockades in Europe on economic growth. .

The European Community predicts that after an unprecedented decline of 6.8% in 2020, the Eurozone economy will grow by 3.8% in both 2021 and 2022. Following the last drop of 6.3%, the EU's overall economy will grow by 3.7% and 3.9% in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Some EU countries, including Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Poland, are expected to fully recover this year, while other countries will recover their losses, but will not fully recover until 2022. However, Spain, Greece, and Italy, which have experienced economic downturns of 11% and 10%, will be 8.8% and 8.8% respectively in 2020, and it will take longer to rebound.

The lockdowns and restrictions in the Covid pandemic countries of the past year have undoubtedly also had an impact on crane manufacturers, as their customers delayed investments or reduced production, and interruptions in the supply chain brought challenges.

But it's not all bad news. Since December last year, some markets have begun to recover, and the industry has realized that, except for Covid, the markets in Western Europe are basically stable.

"Across Western Europe, you will see the same situation: large projects are put on hold or decisions are delayed," said Knut Stewen, managing director of Kito Erikkila. However, he added that future activities are very good, and in most countries, smaller projects are proceeding as usual.

For more than a year, the new crown virus pandemic has been dominating people’s thoughts and actions, but Steven said that the US/EU relations during Donald Trump’s presidency have also caused some disturbance. Now Joe Biden is in Washington. In the White House, he is looking forward to a "new stable" direct current.

At Kito Europe, Martin Rothe, executive officer and managing director, stated that during the pandemic, the auto industry and regions with stricter lockdowns such as France and Iberia have been "restricted", compared to Germany and the Nordic countries. Especially so. Strong.

Rothe said that there was a sharp decline between April and June last year, but then a rapid recovery, so at the end of the fiscal year in March 2021, Kito Europe's performance will be the same as the previous fiscal year.

GH Cranes also noticed reduced demand and slower investment in “domestic” markets such as Spain, France, and Portugal, but Javier Jimeno, who is in charge of Spain, France, and Portugal, said that it is clear that the new crown pneumonia is the cause, not anything. Structural weakness in the market. He added that although the company's turnover in new cranes and equipment upgrades declined during the pandemic, its strong penetration in Spain and Portugal allowed it to maintain a good level of service.

As business started to slow down in March last year, crane manufacturer Kuli Hebezeuge expected an increase in demand for services and spare parts to keep the old production facilities running, but this did not materialize.

Kuli export manager Oliver Riese said: “In fact, due to the decline in turnover, more production companies have partially or completely closed their doors. For some companies, this situation continues.”

However, since the end of last year, Ku Li and other crane machinery companies have seen initial signs of recovery, bringing the prospect of resuming more normal business soon, but these comments were made before the third wave of new crown pneumonia epidemic in Europe. of. .

In March, Kuli assembled and installed a double beam EOT crane at Luxport SA in Luxembourg. It is located in a partially open factory, covering the entire area from welding manufacturing, truck roads and railways to the Moselle River, used for loading and unloading ships. The new crane replaces the old 20t structure, with 2 x 16t, the total capacity on the rotating trolley is 32t, and the span is 24m. The hook path is also 24m, and it can be lifted at a speed of 22.5m per minute.

The special trolley with a hook distance of 4m can rotate when loading and unloading long steel parts that usually exceed 30m. The work area is illuminated by six LED lights, each with a 5 x 37W light group.

"Compared with the old crane, the hook method has also been optimized to lift the load close to the crane's main beam," Riese explained.

The single-sided walkway on the crane and the platform on the crab provide service passages. In addition, remote access allows fast response time.

Controlled by abdominal remote control. Each hoist can be controlled individually or at the same time in synchronous operation to be used with traverse.

The crane uses Kuli's latest smartER inverter technology. The company said that compared with traditional inverter technology, this technology can save up to 57% of energy during lifting movements.

CEO Jürgen Dlugi stated that Liftket's business has also picked up since December 2020, although sales to the entertainment industry have ceased due to venue closures and event cancellations due to the pandemic.

"There are no major differences in the European market; only the UK may be slower than other countries," Dlugi said.

However, for SWF Krantechnik, the situation is different.

"Covid hinders the recovery in Western Europe," said Gerald Körner, director of sales. "Due to the breadth and timing of national restrictions, economic performance varies. Demand from Germany is quite limited. The unstable political situation in Italy has created uncertainty and made buyers unwilling. Spain and Portugal performed better than expected. "Körner added.

However, there is no doubt that customers have postponed projects due to the pandemic, and fewer projects mean increased competition and lower prices.

Körner said that the pressure of the pandemic has also been felt in other ways.

“The supply chain has been disrupted throughout the pandemic. Fuel price pressure and container shortages have led to a decline in shipping capacity, which are major challenges that need to be resolved,” he said.

Korner added that on the bright side, although many customers have been hit harder in the second wave of Covid, most customers are at least better prepared than the first wave.

The Covid pandemic continues to make headlines and will undoubtedly last for a long time, but Dietmar Nussbaumer, head of technical sales at Kuenz, says there are other factors at play.

He said: "It is not only the pandemic that has changed the market, or the impact has become very difficult to assess." "Trade barriers such as tariffs, Brexit and other political uncertainties are also slowing the free flow of goods."

Riese also stated that since the United Kingdom left the European Union on January 1, 2021, it has had a significant impact on trade, partly because of the increased inventory of British customers last year and the uncertainty of new customs requirements. However, he does expect trade to return to normal later this year.

Liftket also noticed a slowdown in the UK market. “Due to Brexit, the UK is clearly struggling and customers are moving to Ireland or increasing production at factories outside the UK,” Dlugi said.

The experience of different customer departments is also different. The aviation, automotive and entertainment industries are almost at a standstill, but Kuli said the construction industry is largely unaffected by the pandemic.

"The construction industry is still a growing market throughout Europe," Riese said.

The trend of prefabrication and pre-assembly, coupled with the construction boom in some countries, has led to a "significant" increase in demand. "A higher capacity is needed-25 tons to 50 tons, or more," Riese said.

Before the pandemic, the development trend of digitalization, smart products, and energy efficiency had been established, and crane manufacturers expected that this trend would continue once the business returned to a more normal level.

Jimeno said: "Customers require increasingly digitized assets, combined with technologies that promote energy recovery." "We are integrating elements that enable our equipment to regenerate the energy it consumes, as well as the application of Industry 4.0 to remotely control our equipment, and forecasts The intelligent service process that affects the key elements of our customers’ production failures or unplanned downtime."

Nussbaumer said that the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G are becoming more and more popular, and Kuenz has used them as the “technical leader” of the project.

Nussbaumer said Kuenz also noticed an increase in inquiries for custom crane systems.

The situation is similar for Liftket. “Since the new factory was built in 2018, we have been expanding the scope of customization and producing more special equipment using electric chain hoists,” Dlugi said.

He believes that it is Liftket's internal design and production process that enable it to provide customized services flexibly.

"We may be the only company that does all the work internally. We design, develop, design, process, manufacture and assemble complete products ourselves," Dlugi said. "We can tell you which colleagues built which cranes and what materials they used."

Kuli's customers are also investing in green technologies, which can reduce customer costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions during production. "Especially for higher loads, we are now offering more and more inverter-controlled drives, including energy recovery devices," Riese said. "This means that during each braking process, you will'generate' energy, which will be fed back to the grid, and at the same time you no longer need bulky braking resistors, these resistors will only convert energy into Heat."

At the other end of the technology range, Kuli also provides spare parts for cranes built more than 50 years ago.

"Our business is to provide complete cranes and single cranes or crane components, but another important part of the business is to provide spare parts to repair old equipment manufactured in the 1960s or earlier," Riese said. "Many old cranes and cranes are still in operation, just because we can provide them with parts and services. In terms of life cycle costs, investing in our products is very cost-effective."

SWF Krantechnik stated that another continuing trend in Western Europe is the reduction in demand for high loads and the shift to personal workstation solutions.

Körner said the changes in the energy market are obvious. "Due to the general development of the oil and gas industry, the demand for explosion-proof equipment is quite stagnant. Investment in renewable energy is still relatively stable," he said.

During the pandemic, crane manufacturers have been maintaining production-despite the low order volume-but of course, Covid measures force them to adopt a different way of working, and additional measures will affect time and costs. Some manufacturers have changed their factory shift patterns, trade shows and company events have been cancelled, video calls instead of meeting with customers in person has become the new normal, and travel restrictions have affected on-site workers involved in assembly and commissioning. Each country has different regulations, which makes this more difficult, and these regulations have also changed during the pandemic.

For some manufacturers, the pandemic has delayed the launch of new products. SWF Krantechnik will soon launch the VECTO jib crane, and Körner said it should be announced sooner.

SWF provides the VECTO boom as a wall-mounted column-type jib crane with three different designs: over-supported Profile Master PLUS light crane profile made of steel; under-supported I profile; and over-supported my profile.

Körner said that the boom is quick and easy to assemble, and the series can be equipped with all ATHLO electric chain hoists and CRAFTster manual chain hoists.

"VECTO cantilevers can be used in many industries and working environments," he said, adding that in the near future, more models using ProfileMaster PLUS aluminum light crane profiles will be launched.

Kito Erikkila also launched a product-a new gantry crane, which is said to be a flexible solution for situations that require lifting at multiple different workstations. The gantry crane is not fixed to any structure, so it can be easily moved from one workstation to another. The maximum lifting capacity of a single beam is 500 kg, and the maximum lifting capacity of a double beam is 1000 kg.

The company also introduced an articulated dual suspension solution as a standard product for its cranes, allowing higher suspension forces and greater flexibility when configuring the crane.

In the past 18 months, Kito Erikkila has invested in new equipment and improved internal processes, allowing the company to better control the entire production process and thus better control quality. The investment includes a new powder coating line, a bagging machine, which allows Kito Erikkila to bag parts themselves, and it has already manufactured part of the cart in-house.

Stewen said these investments also support the company's goal of making its processes and production more sustainable and environmentally friendly. It carried out energy-efficient production by loading trolleys and transferred more production to its own facilities, thus simplifying logistics and reducing truck movement.

Now it is turning its attention to a new energy-efficient office building at its Marsala base in southern Finland. The old office was demolished in January, and construction of the new building using geothermal heating will start in the spring.

"Our decision to invest in processes, production and new office buildings is based on our belief in the future, the good partnerships we have established around the world, and the positive feedback on our products," Stewen said.

Although Covid has brought uncertainty and volatility, and will continue to spread around the world for a long time in the future, as well as problems with the European vaccination plan, crane manufacturers believe in a better and easier era coming soon.

Körner of SWF Krantechnik said: “Companies will be confident in the durability of the recovery and move forward with new investments.” “Vaccinations are progressing, and containment measures are generally relaxed in the second quarter. The EU subsidies injected into the market should be This will lead to rapid growth in mid-2021. Inflation, led by energy prices, is also rising."

GH Cranes believes that this year the industry will regain its vitality before it gains a foothold in 2022, but there will be commercial casualties.

Jimeno said: “As the pandemic is brought under control, the market will regain its vitality, although we expect a U-shaped recovery instead of a V-shaped recovery, the bottom of which is longer than we hoped.” “We believe that 2021 is the recovery. In 2016, with the launch of the European Recovery Fund, it will have a greater impact in 2022. Since this is not a structural crisis, we hope to return to the pre-crisis level as soon as possible, but we believe that many of our customers will be put aside.

"The government's policy decisions to protect jobs affected by the pandemic will help maintain the industry, but we don't know if this is enough for everyone to survive."

Kito Europe agrees that the European market is basically stable, and it is expected that once the recovery is established, there will be no change in the trend.

"Modern sales and communication tools will be a key success factor. In addition, we expect the customized product solutions market to grow strongly," Rothe said.

Kuli is also looking for the positive side. Riese said: "Since early February, we have seen significant growth in the market, and as far as we know, we expect to return to normal levels before Covid soon."

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