Articles by Patrick Hill

Access specialist CTE and its Chinese affiliate, Handler, plan to launch "soon" a 29 m working height access platform on a 10 t chassis in the Chinese market. The new machine will have a CTE telescoping and articulating boom, with jib, mounted on a locally-produced carrier.

Elliott Equipment Company has introduced a 19 m working height material handling aerial work platform, the V60. The model, the tallest HiReach ever from the Omaha, Nebraska company, has a 225 kg basket capacity and mounts on a 8640 kg GVW chassis.

Pon Holdings B.V. in The Netherlands has combined its global aerial lift, materials handling, and forklift equipment companies into one group: Pon Material Handling. The new company, which rents, sells, and services equipment, is consolidating its headquarters staff to Houston, Texas.

Italian access equipment manufacturer CTE has donated two electric cars to a charity working in Ethiopia. The Kidane Mehret mission, located in the Tigray region of Adwa, has been active for years in child adoption and other humanitarian work.

Truck mounted specialist Skyking - part of King Highway Products - launched at SED two utility lifts, a 13 m working height articulated boom on a Land Rover, and a 13.5 m van mount with a GSR boom (first seen at last year's APEX).

Revenues of Harsco Infrastructure in the first quarter of 2009 fell US$95.1 million, or 25% from $378.8 million in the same period last year, to $283.7 million. The lower performance was due primarily to reduced end-market demand, particularly in the United Kingdom, and to negative foreign currency translation effects.

Contracting company Osborne in the UK now requires all contractors providing scaffolding services for its projects to be members of the National Access and Scaffolding Confederation (NASC).

Sales by Harsco Infrastructure, the access services business of the Harsco Group, fell 25% to US$284 million in the first quarter of the year. Two thirds of the decline was the result of currency changes, while the remainder of the fall was the result of poorer performance, mainly in the UK SGB business.

D&G Hoist and Crane Hire in Australia has purchased Verticon's Australian hoist and crane rental division for AU$12 million (€6.5 million). The sale transfers Verticon's fleet of 140 passenger and materials hoists, all rental agreements, and 280 employees to D&G.

Terex reported that net sales in the first quarter of 2009 for its Aerial Work Platforms (AWP) segment were $228.5 million (€172.3 million), a fall of $436.2 million (€328.9), or 65.6%, from the same period in 2008. Excluding the effects of foreign currency exchange rate changes, the net sales decrease was approximately 64%.

Harsco Corporation has received new orders totaling close to €3 million for rental scaffolding services on a number of public sector projects in the United Kingdom and Ireland. All of the work is scheduled to begin by June 2009.

Following its acquisition by Haulotte last year, Bil-Jax is exhibiting on its parent company's stand. The X-Boom, self propelled booms have outriggers rather than heavy counterweights reducing the machines' overall weight and their cost.

Oil and Steel is launching four new models at Intermat . Following the introduction of the 20 m high double pantograph Snake 2010 Compact, Oil & Steel has been developing two new models: the Snake 1770 Compact and the Snake 2512 Compact.

Lionlift specialises in aerial platforms for 3.5 t trucks and crawler mounted machines. The telescopic (GT) and articulated (GX) ranges of truck mounts come in variety of working heights and outreaches to cover a wide range of applications. On show at Intermat are the GT18.12 and GX23.11 models.

The Dino 265RTX is the latest addition to Dinolift's RXT range of self-propelled, rough terrain booms. By combining the boom from the trailer mount models and the chassis from the RXT models Dinolift can add an extra 2.5 m to the working height of the Dino 240RXT - now 26.5 m.

Oshkosh Corporation, parent of access equipment manufacturer JLG in the US, said it is likely to charge $1.2 - $1.5 billion (€0.9 - 1.1 billion) against assets in the second quarter 2009. The company said the non-cash charge would reflect the write-down of goodwill and other assets that do not depreciate.

Merlo, ATN, CTE, and Bobcat are all exhibiting new access platforms and telehandlers at this year's Intermat.

Merlo has previewed the 4000 kg P25.6 telehandler, calling it "super compact". It is 1800 mm wide, a width first seen from the Italian company in the P20.6 SC of the early 90's.

Sometimes the most obvious measures, such as height and speed, get the most attention. Pega Hoists already holds two world records for rack-and-pinion hoists - longest single run, at 425 m; and fastest, non-counterweighted, at 100 m/min at full load of 3.2 t -- as a result of its contract at the Burj Dubai. Next month it will add a third: the world's highest - at 625 m base station - permanent rack-and-pinion lift.

Turner Access has received the 2009 ‘Access and Scaffolding Specialist of the Year' award from Construction News magazine. It is the third time Turner, an access equipment manufacturer and services provider, has won the honour since the Specialist Awards' inauguration in 2005.