| GUEST BLOGGER |


“I’m glad we supported the show, as always, and we generated leads to follow-up, but it was an event that’ll better be remembered for reflecting a surging market.”


otherwise looking at our tender submission or hosting an Ace crane engineer about kitting out their new mill. I’m glad we supported the show, as always, and we generated leads to follow-up, but it was an event that’ll better be remembered for reflecting a surging market. As an aside, I recall attending a show, unrelated to steel, many years ago. Te talk before it was pessimistic and many were cursing the organizers for even staging it. During expo build-up, there were some who revealed they’d only sent one person to front their exhibit in anticipation of a flat turnout. People thought: who’s going to come to a trade show with the relevant sector on its knees? Te peculiarity was that for exactly that reason the aisles were booming. People had nothing better to do so they walked the show. Further, they invited half the office to join them. Our koozies were all gone by halfway through the first day. It felt great at the time but, of course, everyone was really in a tire-kicking frame of mind; nobody placed any orders for years, by which time we’d done the show twice over again, and we all lost our voices for nothing.


Steel cranes


As a de facto steel crane manufacture—it’s undoubtedly our biggest and most important market—these are exciting times, yet one has to be at the top of their game to thrive. Despite the volume of recent orders, from existing and new customers, we’re still delivering standard steel cranes in approx. 20 weeks. Considering the amount of new mills and upgrades we’re fitting out, it’s a turnaround that’s impressing most of our customers. But it takes a production schedule, materials, and processes that can cope. We’re processing regular orders for two to 12 cranes,


from 20-ton to 200-ton capacity, all of which will arguably be the most important tools in the facilities where they’ll be installed. It puts tremendous pressure on us as a manufacturer to deliver and, moreover, means our delivery times are subject to scrutiny that


they perhaps wouldn’t be in a cooler market. Honesty is key; we tell customers we can get the crane onsite in five months because we can. Over promising only to under deliver can see a boom period do more damage to a supplier than even the tightest of recessions. Equal diligence is required with regards to ordering and stocking materials. Tere’s an irony to the fact that our cranes are manufactured in large part from steel. Ever-changing steel prices mean a manufacturer using the product must be careful not to commit to prices that could later cripple them over the sometimes drawn out period between delivering a quote and an order being received. If it’s a small margin job with many tons of steel required to make the product (it doesn’t matter if it’s a crane or something else) even a small increase in costs can turn a profitable order into one that’s going to stretch the company to breaking point. It’d be folly to hold prices quoted in this climate and customers will accept safeguarding means accordingly.


Oil and gas fuelled It’s worth adding a footnote about the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), which straddled April and May this year. I was only in attendance for a meeting but I was encouraged by conversations I had and am even tempted to exhibit next time around. With oil prices at, say, $65 a barrel (up from some crazy lows in recent years), heightened activity will certainly lead to demand for overhead lifting equipment. OTC 2019 will take place on 6-9 May at NRG


Park, Houston, Texas, and I’m excited about how the marketplace will look in another 11 months. Tank you for reading.<


Keep following us on Twitter: @AceWorldCompany Camron Ghanemi, Vice President, Ace World Companies


INDUSTRIAL LIFTING EXCHANGE


SUMMER 2018


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