UK | MARKET REPORT
fishing expeditions for prices. Enquirers needed the equipment, and needed it immediately, for projects that had to continue through the lockdowns – and which were therefore important, indeed often essential, and frequently connected with the pandemic. So we have done lifts at the new Nightingale hospitals, and to assist the police communications networks. Aside from Covid, the offshore oil and gas market has been weak in 2020 but offshore wind continued to develop. Construction and Infrastructure now seem to be fairly stable. “Shift patterns have changed. Our
supply chains have held up, in part because our European operations have their own fleets so we have not had to rely on outside hauliers. Similarly Brexit was a consideration but again because we are an international company with bases throughout Europe as well as in the UK that has not led to delays. It has added another layer of complexity in paperwork, though. Enquiries are still coming in from Europe, so clients there are not being deterred by Brexit.
“The pandemic and the support measures that it needed have clearly
MOVING A DINOSAUR
Dippy the Diplodocus died some 150 million years ago in the Late Jurassic era. Several millennia later his bones were dug up and in 1905 a cast of them dominated the entrance hall of London’s Natural History Museum; they stayed there for over a century and became iconic, much-loved and almost a symbol of the museum. In 2017, however, a blue whale carcass replaced him in the museum and he (or she?) went travelling. Since then the 292 bones have visited museums and galleries from Dorset to Newcastle and
Glasgow and Belfast each time; in mid- 2020 he was in the Rochdale museum. With each move he is dismantled and reassembled at the next site; his assembled skeleton is 4 metres high and wide and 26 metres from the tip of the nose to the tail, so this is no small task. It is carried out by LGH of Manchester. It is a complex lift of a very fragile
artefact. A new transportable mount and base for the skeleton was built, in Canada, for the exhibit to go on tour. In the UK roustabouts were made especially for
the project with bespoke lifting beams suspended between them; beam trolleys, clamps and manual chain hoists are involved at each move as well. Space can be very tight – the Dorset museum hall was only 10cm longer than the skeleton. Each move is an exercise in logistics and expertise. The pandemic has affected the schedule: Currently the dinosaur is resting from his tour, in storage at the Natural History Museum. In spring and summer he will make his final visit and installation, to Norwich Cathedral.
cost many millions of pounds. We have concerns about how the government will act to recover that money: we don’t want to see rocketing corporation tax and VAT to get it back. But 2021 is looking good. One reason for confidence is that LGH is a family firm, which gives stability to the company. Family-company owners are known for having a solid long-term vision, which allows us to continue to evolve at a steady pace even in stormy times.” Times, as we said at the start, have been
stormy; but the lifitng industry does seem to be weathering it well. ●
28 | February 2021 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
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