SOUTHERN EUROPE | MARKET REPORT
R ELEBIA NEO-series automatic lifting hooks at work, lifting steel (left) and paper (right).
and transporting any load, as well as for oversized lifting points of up to 180mm diameter. It is capable of lifting up to 100 kgs. (220 lbs.), with a 4:1 safety factor and advanced safety and productivity features.” Far from regressing during the pandemic, this represents Elebia’s biggest lifting hook to date. “2021 will probably also see the launch of a couple of completely new products which are in heavy demand. We have received many enquiries in the past regarding the subsea sector and specifically designed products for load dropping. We think now is the right time to offer these products as we clearly see an important increase and demand of these solutions for a variety of applications. We have new hardware/software applications like the IOH, Internet of Hooks, where the hooks can be configured, set-up and monitored remotely. We are also working on developing a spreader beam with retractable slings to facilitate the attachment and release of C6 lifting clamps when the application is for pipe handling/lifting. So, there are plenty of new developments for 2021.” Jaso is similarly upbeat about
prospects. “In general the countries in the south of Europe are recovering well,” says Antonio Naranjo, their sales and marketing manager. “For standard lifting equipment the market has been improving: it is better now than it was in the summer of 2020, which is understandable given the worldwide situation. At JASO we have been noticing that the steel sector and the wind energy sector are performing better year by year even with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our intentions for 2021 are to increase
32 | March 2021 |
www.hoistmagazine.com
our presence in the southern European countries. We are geographically close to them, which gives us an advantage, and JASO Industrial has launched several new products and we want to promote them. One that is new is transfer carts (AGVs, or automated guided vehicles); we see great possibilities for this product, especially in the wind energy sector for handling the windmill blades. As I mentioned, the sector is increasing year by year and we see great possibilities for this product.”
ITALY In Italy, Misia has been manufacturing hoists from its base near Milan since the 1980s. It is a company that perhaps wisely in an uncertain world does not commit itself to forecasts. But it too is not downhearted: “Even though 2020 left us with not what you could call sweet dreams in our lives, 2021 is at least starting with good potentials,” says Sabrina Bellini. export manager, Misia, a small family-owned company, as many of its clients; and Italy as a whole, she says, seems well-placed for the recovery in general and for small flexible companies in particular. “We have never been happy predicting
forecasts,” she says, “but what we can say is that in almost 39 years of experience we have learned that the world needs people who are able to do things and develop things and this is particularly true now, given the pandemic. The lifting market needs technicians, and the new Italian government will be led by a good technician.” [Mario Draghi is in the process of forming a government at the time of writing.] “For that reason we think that pandemic recovery funds will be spent effectively, tending towards the country’s
infrastructure and business support. “And even the rise in the costs of raw
materials, although worrying in terms of stability of price lists for manufactured products, is an indication that there is demand in the economy and increases the hopes for a good outlook. We believe that even the initial problems of Brexit, with trade slowing down with the reintroduction of customs, will be solved very soon. “We receive increasingly complex
requests from our customers,” says Bellini, “and we are ready and happy to fulfil these. It must be said that in our field introducing modern innovations is not always easy. Electronics, for example, guarantees better safety – through more efficient load limiters, anti-sway systems, sensors, data loggers and so on – but many customers see in it greater complexity, more elements that can potentially break down and which need experts to understand, higher maintenance costs, and higher spare parts costs. Some still prefer simplicity. So we try to keep available options of traditional solutions such as, for example, the conical rotor motor with mechanical brake.
“It is almost certain that in the not-too-
distant future we will see only inverter motors. At present, though, the choice is still conditioned by the cost difference, which is still in favour of double polarity motors; and there is also a preference among many customers for the traditional conical rotor motor. “Italy has been facing as all the other countries a terrible pandemic, but we always feel proud that our manufacturing economy is made of small and medium players such as ourselves and many of
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