Linde's Summervile facility

"On a percentage basis, Canada and Mexico are outperforming the US this year" in sales of Linde equipment, says Mark Rossler, product manager with Linde Material Handling-North America Corp in Summerville. Acknowledging 2009's trough, he notes that sales "are up 50% over last year".

Linde in Summerville employs 120 staff, with about one-half in the assembly-oriented production arena. The operation occupies nearly 350,000 sqft (3,150 sqm) in two buildings including equipment assembly and a dedicated support centre for after-market activities relating to the US, Canadian, Mexican and Caribbean markets.

Assembly in Summerville involves the 1313 series of hydrostatic-drive, cushion-tyre forklifts for the Class 4 market, the 346 series of electric counterbalanced forklifts and a line of warehouse electric pallet trucks.

Linde in North America made its first delivery of a 1313 series forklift to an end-user almost a year ago.

The 1313 series is "the core of our class IV business (and, so far, is) "performing well," Rossler says. "We are making progress."

Four models in the liquid-propane-gas-powered 1313 series have lifting capacities ranging from 5,000 lbs to 6,500 lbs (2,268 kg to 2,948 kg) and design features suitable for demanding conditions (statlink|Forkliftaction.com News #482)}.

Linde in the US traces its roots to a wagon repair shop in 1853, production of the first electric ram truck for carrying steel coils and development of technological solutions in materials handling.

The North American operation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Linde Material Handling GmbH of Aschaffenburg, Germany within the KION Group. The product lines cover classes 1 through 6.