21.11.2008

Industry adjustments

Most aerial lift, telehandler and loader crane manufacturers have announced repeated lay-offs and adopted short time working and plant shut downs to adjust capacity to demand.

Some of you have noted that we have not been reporting every follow up plant shutdown and employee lay-offs. This has been a conscious policy, with the reporting of initial shut downs and lay-offs but not repeats, unless the company has made a specific announcement or there is something newsworthy in the layoffs or shutdown.

The reason is that if we had reported them all we would have carried such news several times a week during the second half of October and in November, to the point where it is hardly news any more, not to mention the fact that the constant repetition is highly negative and hardly informative.

If you think we are wrong in this we would be please to hear from you, it is a hard call and any feedback is helpful.

Having said that here is a general round up and opinion.

First of all most, if not all major full line manufacturers have moved to shorter hours and plant shut downs. The exceptions being specialist companies like Holland lift, and van and truck mounted manufacturers, many of which have large order books.

Most companies have chosen to extend two week Christmas vacation periods into four weeks at many or all of their plants, in order to reduce inventories and conserve cash. And many, including Genie, JLG, Skyjack, Snorkel, Palfinger, Hiab, UpRight, Haulotte, MEC and Manitou have laid staff off indefinitely/permanently.

While this is gloomy news, and tough for all those directly involved, it is likely to result in a faster bounce back for the industry, than had manufacturers continued producing at current levels, introducing ever larger discounts and silly financing in order to try and avoid difficult decisions.

At the same time Rental companies who are generally not doing too badly, certainly faring better than manufacturers, need to be aware that they cannot operate in a vacuum and that they need the manufacturers. Some rental companies have simply shut off the tap on capital spending, rather than adjusting fleet renewals to match the expectation of lower utilisation in the new year.

Cutting all fleet purchases for any length of time is not good for the industry as a whole, nor is it good for the rental company itself and will create problems down the road. Most rental companies could do far more to bring new users into the market, at least for powered access equipment. When the market gets tough we all need to do more, not less.

Please let us have your views as well as your news [email protected]