Dear reader,
WELCOME TO FORKLIFTACTION.COM,
MATERIALS HANDLING ONLINE.
This is issue #106 - 08 May 2003
of the weekly newsletter for industry
professionals.
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CORRECTION: In last week's story about Finning
International Inc's buyout of Lex Harvey Ltd,
Forkliftaction.com News wrongly reported Finning's purchase
price was USD220 million. The price should have read CAD220
million (USD155.6 million). Click here
to read the corrected version of the story. Forkliftaction.com
News apologises for the error.
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1.
AIRTRAX TO BUY INTO NEW CLARK GERMANY
OWNER? 
HAMMONTON, United States
Airtrax Inc
has signed a 30-day letter of intent to acquire a
significant interest in newly-formed FiLCO GmbH in
Mulheim, Germany.
High-profile, Chicago-based
forklift industry executive Fil Filipov heads FiLCO,
which acquired the bankrupt Clark Material Handling GmbH
from receivers last month.
Over a decade, Mr
Filipov has held executive positions with Terex, which
sold the Clark business in November 1996. Mr Filipov was
managing director of Clark Material Handling in Europe
in 1994 and 1995. He is currently president of Terex
Cranes.
Mr Filipov told Forkliftaction.com News
that, during his tenure, Clark was made profitable, and
the FiLCO purchase would see the business again become
profitable.
Everyone wanted to close the factory
due to high costs, which I disagreed with, he said.
Germany produces quality product, labour costs are not
high, but administration and managers very often
mismanage ... businesses.
Airtrax president
Peter Amico said that, if the parties entered a
definitive contract, Airtrax intended to produce its
innovative ATX-Sidewinder omni-directional forklift at
the German plant.
This arrangement could help
transform Airtrax into a global player virtually
overnight, he said.
Airtrax intended to begin
production of the new forklifts in the USA in
mid-2003.
The letter of intent, dated April 28,
conveys several rights between Airtrax and Mr Filipov.
In essence, it calls for Airtrax, in 30 months, to
provide USD5 million to Mr Filipov via a stock
valuation, cash or additional Airtrax shares.
One
provision calls for Airtrax to sell agreed-upon
securities and, after commissions, distribute the
proceeds as working capital, with 80 percent going to
FiLCO and 20 percent to Airtrax.
Airtrax intends
to appoint Mr Filipov to its board of directors and, at
that time, convey 100,000 unrestricted Airtrax shares to
him.
FiLCO, owned by the Filipov family, has
leased the 200,000-square-foot Mulheim Clark plant for
18 months, from August 1, and taken an option to
purchase the plant and real estate for EUR4.7 million
(USD5.1 million).
Clark was a major forklift
maker in Europe before its insolvency late last year,
and had 2000 sales of more than USD100 million,
according to Airtrax.
FiLCO was completely
separate and had nothing to do with Terex
[Corporation] or my job as head of the Terex Cranes
business, Mr Filipov said.
Airtrax has a
research and development agreement with the US Navy to
commercialise omni-directional forklift technology,
originally purchased from a Swedish
inventory.
Airtrax last year recorded a
USD641,000 loss on sales of USD551,000.
- Airtrax website -
2.
TVH TAKES OVER CLARK GERMANY'S PARTS
BUSINESS
MULHEIM, Germany
Clark Material
Handling GmbH has sold its spare parts business, Clark
Central Parts, to Belgian parts giant TVH Forklift
Parts.
A TVH statement said the agreement
included the sale of the spare parts business,
intellectual property and existing stock of parts for
old and new forklifts. The sale price was not
released.
A Clark dealer memorandum, obtained by
Forkliftaction.com News, said the sale would "offer ...
dealers the opportunity to once again be supplied with
parts".
Clark's existing DCI-System dealer parts
ordering facility was closed by TVH on April 17. All
orders and backorders were cancelled, and dealers were
instructed by Clark to re-order parts through TVH's own
Quick Price/Quick Source ordering program.
TVH
said that, despite industry rumours to the contrary, it
was the only company involved in the Clark Central Parts
sale.
- TVH website -
3.
**FORK TALK** FLTA TO HOST SAFETY
CONFERENCE
ALTON, United Kingdom
The Fork Lift
Truck Association (FLTA) will stage its first-ever
safety conference at the Heritage Motor Centre at
Gaydon, near Warwick, on September 24.
FLTA
chairman Brian Warbrick said strong demand from members
of the associations Safe User Group weighed heavily on
the decision to host the event. The conference would
promote safety as an essential element of materials
handling.
We have organised this conference to
bring real, practical safety issues to people who can
influence the work environment, such as operations,
safety and training managers, Mr Warbrick
said.
In view of the huge potential for legal
problems, economic losses and human tragedies if safety
is not prioritised and understood, our message is: can
you afford not to be there?
Subjects to be
covered include:
~ Health and safety issues;
~
Forklift operations best practice;
~ Use of working
platforms;
~ Working with attachments;
~ Thorough
examination;
~ Manual handling;
~ Racking safety;
and
~ Training.
This is a very significant
development which will do much to broaden knowledge of
safety issues, Mr Warbrick said.
We anticipate
that, like the FLTA awards for excellence, the safety
conference will become a key annual event in the
materials handling calendar.
- FLTA website -
4.
TOYOTA UNVEILS THREE-WHEEL MARKET PLAN
PARIS, France
Toyota Material
Handling Company (TMHC) has big plans for its 7FBEF
electric three-wheeler, launched at Manutention in
March.
Three-wheelers are typically a European
product, said TMHC chief engineer and general manager
Yasuhisa Yamauchi.
While three-wheelers commanded
55 percent of the European electric counterbalance
forklift market, penetration in Japan was far less
significant. But Toyota was confident it would now
introduce the three-wheeler to Japan.
The 7FEBF
is being manufactured on three continents. Production
started in Japan in January, the USA last month, and
European production starts this month in Ancenis,
France.
Toyota Industrial Equipment Europe (TIEE)
president Shinya Furukawa said up to 12 units a day were
planned to leave the Ancenis factory, and the company
planned to make between 1,200 and 1,400 machines this
year.
About 60 percent of the French 7FBEFs
components are sourced from France. Other parts,
including the motor, are built in Japan.
The
7FBEF, which features Toyotas SAS stability and AC2
power systems, is available in four versions, with lift
capacities from 1.5 tonnes to two tonnes.
TIEE
counterbalance trucks product manager Benoit Meunier
said Toyota increased its European counterbalance and
warehousing market share by one percent in 2002. The
company sold almost 16,000 forklifts, 1,500 of which
were three-wheelers.
The European market is
stable, (but) we think we can still do better, he
said.
- Toyota Europe
website -
5.
SOLIDEAL WINS NISSAN'S SUPPLIER OF THE
YEAR
MARENGO, United States
Solideal Tire
has beaten almost 150 companies to be named Nissan
Forklift Corporation USA's 2003 supplier of the year for
the second consecutive time.
Suppliers were rated
on their quality, rejected parts rate, cost reduction
planning and implementation, deliveries, reaction time
and corrective actions.
Nissan Forklift USA
president Mark Akabori presented the award to Solideal
sales & marketing senior vice-president Thom Hronis,
OEM sales manager Ted Vanke and Machesney Park branch
manager Randy Baietto in a ceremony this month.
- Solideal website -
6.
MAN JAILED FOR FORKLIFT RAMPAGE
YORK, United Kingdom
A 22-year-old
homeless man has been jailed for six years for stealing
a GBP40,000 (USD64,500) forklift and going on a rampage
through York, causing more than GBP100,000 (USD161,400)
damage.
Ray Wilson took the eight-tonne forklift,
believed to be a Caterpillar machine, and planned to
drive it 177 kilometres (110 miles) to Liverpool to
visit his mother, according to a report in The
Sun.
Travelling at up to 20 miles (32 kilometres)
an hour, the troubled young man hit several vehicles,
including police cars, and injured six people before he
was stopped by a police Landcruiser.
Mr Wilson
admitted to charges of theft, damage and endangering 14
people.
Picture courtesy of The Sun
(click here to view).
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13.
FORKLIFT, 11,000 LB CAPACITY
Rock Island, IL,
United States
Closing: 15 May 2003 TBA - Contract:
DACW25-03-T-0039
14.
BATTERY, STORAGE (4K# AND 6K# FORKLIFT
TRUCKS)
Warren, MI, United States
Closing:
30 May 2003 TBA - Contract: DAAE07-03-Q-T221
15.
LIFTING AND HANDLING EQUIPMENT
Paris,
France
Closing: 09 May 2003 12:00am - Contract: CPV:
29221000
16.
PALLET JACKS - ELECTRIC, 4,000 LBS CAPACITY, QUANTITY: 9
EACH
Wiesbaden Contracting Center,
Germany
Closing: 23 May 2003 TBA - Contract:
DABN01-03-T-0206
17.
ROTARY SWEEPER MACHINE
Not advised, United
States
Closing: 22 May 2003 2:00pm - Contract:
32-12-4473 Sweeper
18.
VARIOUS MHE
Helsingborg, Sweden
Closing:
18 June 2003 TBA - Contract: ND:74708-2003
19.
LIFTING TRUCKS
Orleans Armees,
France
Closing: 25 June 2003 5:00pm - Contract:
ND:73698-2003
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