SOUTHERN EUROPE | MARKET REPORT
will save money but will not affect the final product of the company if it is not brand new.” Tsiolis’ business model is in some ways
the reverse of companies that make new cranes – preference for used rather than new cranes rises in bad times and falls in good ones - and his experience has also been different: “Our annual turnover was not affected in 2020 since we had lots of projects running that happily were not abandoned or postponed. However, 2021 does not look promising. January 2021 was the worse month of the last decade for us. Many of our partners have found the same. Probably everyone thought in February 2020 that the COVID pandemic would end soon, probably during summer, so in 2020 not many businesses were held back. Now that the pandemic is much worse than everybody initially expected, everybody is sceptical about investing,” he adds. But, as with Konecranes, the hydro-
power and marble industries are providing him business “We have customers who require cranes of 10t-50t capacity for small hydro-power stations in Greece and the Balkans. Hydro-power is doing well all over the region. We have many customers in the marble industry in Greece, Albania and Kosovo,” says Tsiolis. “We also have customers who work with construction materials - glass industries, steel bars and the like - in Albania and Kosovo. I would say that Kosovo is at its peak in that field. Exports of Greek marble are going well but construction in Greece has been contracting since 2009. Just to mention that 15 years ago we used to construct around 20 five- or six-tonne
R A reconstructed bridge girder crane from Tsiolis for a client in Albania
gantry cranes per year for companies that merchandise steel bars. In 2019, we only constructed three such cranes and we bought six used gantry cranes from bankrupted companies of the same sector. Inside Greece we sell cranes from 3.2t to 32t capacity. Outside Greece we sell only cranes of 10t capacity and higher. Abroad, the cost of transporting and installing a small crane absorbs the price saving over a new small crane, so it is not economic to export smaller ones. “In small capacity cranes under 3.2t the price difference over a new one of same technical specs and brand name could be 30%. In high-capacity cranes, of say 50t, the saving could be around 70% of the price. “Around 60% of our sales is outside
Greece. We have sold cranes to Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia,
Romania, Georgia, the Middle East, India, Bangladesh and spare parts in more than 60 countries. A large project that was delivered at the end of 2020 was a reconstructed 80/5t gantry delivered in Albania. “We buy our used cranes mainly from Germany and from Greece. We tend to combine the girders of the Greek cranes with the equipment from German ones to construct the crane the customer requires. We modernise the cranes to new standards, adding limit switches, thermal protection on the motors and so on, but there is little demand for full digital controls.” It would seem, then, that the crane
market throughout Southern Europe is far from stagnating. Post-pandemic, people everywhere seem to be looking for growth. ●
MOTORISED BRIDGE CRANES FROM NIKO
Two motorized bridge cranes of 2t capacity were installed in a factory in Greece that processes agricultural products. Niko engineers took advantage of the existing ceiling steel structure that allowed for a ceiling mounted system, thus keeping the that workers can handle the heavy duty loads easily and safely. With the new cranes only one worker is
required for handling activities, improving utilization of workspace and increasing productivity and safety.
36 | March 2021 |
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