Dear reader,
WELCOME TO FORKLIFTACTION.COM,
MATERIALS HANDLING ONLINE.
This is issue #82 - 07 November
2002 of the weekly newsletter for industry
professionals.
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Welcome
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Brown & Sons in Mexico and Advister in Estonia.
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1.
NACCO POSTS PROMISING Q3 FIGURES 
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, United
States
Nacco Industries Inc, maker of Hyster and Yale
forklifts and parts, reported an improvement in third
quarter profit and sales and cited tight management
controls as a contributor.
We expect improved
operating results in the fourth quarter compared to the
(corresponding 2001) quarter, Nacco chairman Alfred
Rankin Jr said.
During the third quarter, ended
September 30, Nacco shipped 15,299 forklifts, up from
14,452 shipped in the same period last year. The
forklift backlog increased 30 percent from 14,400 units
to 18,700.
The wholesale business recorded a
profit of USD800,000 on sales of USD342.2 million. In
the same quarter of 2001, the wholesale division lost
USD19.7 million on sales of USD314.4 million. In
addition to selling more units, Nacco cut manufacturing
costs, extended its global procurement and cost control
programs and saw a shift to sales of higher-margin
forklifts.
Nacco was being careful not to get
out ahead of things and was going to be conservative
in the forklift business. At this stage, the profit
improvement is driven by our (cost-reduction) programs
and not by a return of the market in a dramatic sense,
Mr Rankin said.
Naccos company-owned forklift
dealerships reported a loss of USD1.6 million on sales
of USD43.3 million for the quarter. Nacco hopes to bring
the in-house retail operation to at least break-even
status while seeking strong dealerships to operate the
locations, Mr Rankin said.
For example, Nacco
sold company-owned Hyster retail dealerships in Germany
to Zeppelin GmbH last December and designated the buyer
as its Hyster dealer in several European
countries.
- Nacco
website -
2.
FORKLIFT SAFETY NOT JUST FOR DRIVERS:
STUDY
ADELAIDE, Australia
Legislators must
look further afield than drivers when considering
forklift safety issues, says an Australian
researcher.
Ken Wood, proprietor of Safety
Awareness Forklift Equipment (SAFE), is currently
completing a study on the impact pedestrians have on
forklift accidents. Australian workers compensation
figures suggest 50 percent of all forklift accidents
involve pedestrians.
Forklift safety training
has always focused on the attitudes and skills of
drivers, when a lot more attention should be paid to how
management and pedestrians themselves can reduce the
risk of forklift-related injuries, he said.
Mr
Wood, a former general manager of Hyster South
Australia, said that, with insurance costs for public
liability risks soaring all over the world, employers
must adopt a more proactive approach to managing
risks.
Simple forklift traffic management plans
and pedestrian exclusion zones will help reduce the risk
of injury and, consequently, insurance exposures, he
said.
The US Occupational Safety & Health
Organisations move to mandate refresher training for
forklift operators was a good idea, but a more general
revision of forklift licensing legislation was
warranted, Mr Wood said.
- SAFE website -
3.
KCI KONECRANES REVIEWS OUTLOOK AS Q3
PLUMMETS
HYVINKAA, Finland
KCI Konecraness
gradual improvement through the first half appears to
have waned in its latest results for the September
quarter.
In the late (northern) summer there
seems to have been a shift in market sentiment to the
worse again, said KCI Konekranes Group president Stig
Gustavson.
During the third quarter, KCI logged
EUR49.2 million (USD49.153 million) in sales of standard
lifting equipment, a 19.5 percent decline compared to
last years third quarter. Sales of special cranes fell
10.1 percent.
Maintenance services and internal
sales were up but income from operations was down 44
percent to EUR8 million (USD7.99 million). Net income
dropped 43.8 percent to EUR4.7 million (USD4.69
million).
According to the report, the US and
German markets deteriorated, but orders received grew,
indicating an increase in market share. Positive
developments were noted in China, the United Kingdom and
the Benelux.
The business environment is not
expected to change, the interim report, said and no
fast improvement was expected for standard lifting
equipment sales.
- KCI Konecranes
website -
4.
TOYOTA OFFERS SAFETY TIPS FOR CASUALS
CASTLEFORD, United Kingdom
In light
of the huge number of casual staff employed in the
lead-up to Christmas, Toyota Industrial Equipment (UK)
is offering copies of its manual handling guide
free.
The guide gives employers and employees
advice on the safest way to lift, stack and move items
in the workplace. Toyota says the guide, approved by the
Health & Safety Executive (HSE), reinforces the
importance of assessing manual handling
practices.
From November 2001 to January 2002,
about 1.6 million temporary workers made up 6.5 percent
of all United Kingdom employees. Currently 36.5 percent
of workplace accidents are due to materials handling,
with 73.1 percent of those resulting in a sprain or
strain injury. The HSE has also found 49.3 percent of
back injuries are caused by incorrect goods
handling.
- Toyota website
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5.
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6.
**FORK TALK** FLTA ADVISES ON SEATBELT
RULES
LASHAM, United Kingdom
As the
December 5 deadline for fitting seat restraints to
forklifts approaches, the Fork Lift Truck Association
(FLTA) is concerned some forklift suppliers may be
panicked into making wrong decisions.
While
supporting the new legislation, which seeks to avoid
injuries caused by forklifts tipping over, the FLTA says
there are some situations where seatbelts are neither
necessary nor advisable.
The FLTA is
collaborating with the United Kingdom Health &
Safety Executive to offer an interpretation of the law
and advice on its application.
We believe
misleading information could lead to people installing
restraints which might actually make their forklifts
more dangerous, FLTA chairman Brian Warbrick
said.
Several forklift designs have been
identified for which restraints may not be
required:
- Those with such a high degree of
stability that they are highly unlikely to overturn in
the operating environment for which they are designed
(normally only trucks of 10 tonnes capacity or
more);
- Masted forklifts which can only roll through
90 degrees and which have features to prevent the
operator from being trapped between the truck and the
ground;
- Forklifts where the operator sits sideways
and gains access from the rear only; and
- Forklifts
driven by a stand-on operator.
The FLTA also says
there are some older forklifts to which restraints
cannot be fitted safely, such as those with unsecured
batteries or with combined seat switches and parking
brakes.
Generally, for a forklift to be used
without a restraint, the working area must be smooth and
level, with an enforceable speed limit of four miles an
hour. The potential for operator error must also be
included in a risk assessment.
Once the risk
assessment is complete, the employer must ensure the
forklift is used only for the designated task. The risk
assessment containing that information should be signed
by the supplier, employer and operator.
A warning
sticker for forklifts without restraints fitted has been
produced by the FLTA to warn that a risk assessment must
be carried out before any new task is
undertaken.
The responsibility for operator
safety, and for carrying out the necessary risk
assessments, rests ultimately with the employer, Mr
Warbrick said.
Fork Talk is a new
Forkliftaction.com News service available to non-profit
forklift and related industry bodies around the world.
If you would like to have your associations news
included in this column, email
news@forkliftaction.com.
- FLTA website -
7.
BRITISH HYSTER AGENT PUSHES INTO IRANIAN
MARKET
WEMBLEY, United Kingdom
A British
company bidding to become Hysters agent in Iran has
already picked up sales of USD160,000 through a series
of trade fairs.
Alperton Ltd took stock to Iran
and hired local staff to help with its sales push, said
corporate manager Alan Rides. Alperton agents had
travelled to Iran on sales trips 13 times in the past 14
months.
It was a gamble, but it appears to have
paid off. Usually agents try to make sales before buying
stock and hiring staff, but we wanted to make a real
impact, he said.
It is a huge market and very
difficult to break into because there is some very
strong competition. Iran is the sort of place where
people want to see what they are buying and where
face-to-face business dealings are very
important.
Alpertons participation in Iranian
trade fairs was supported by Trade Partners UK, a
British government network that encourages overseas
trade and investment.
Alperton Ltd, based in
Wembley, north London, already has experience of
exporting into the Middle East. It is Hyster's agent in
Libya, importing 98 percent of all forklifts into the
country. The company accounts for one-tenth of the
United Kingdoms exports to Libya.
8.
WAYWARD FORKLIFT CAUSES ROOF COLLAPSE
KIRKLAND, United States
A forklift
caused a partial roof collapse at a Hertz rental
warehouse after smashing into a support column on
October 24.
People inside the building were
evacuated.
The collision broke a post that
supported a roof beam, severing electrical wires and a
sprinkler system pipe, said an Eastside Journal
newspaper report.
Firefighters said electricity
was arcing at the ceiling and a several-thousand-gallon
lake was forming in the warehouse.
We were
concerned about the electrocution hazard, as well as the
chance of collapse, one firefighter said.
Ten
minutes after the building was evacuated, a 4,000 square
foot (370 square metres) section of the roof collapsed.
Kirkland building inspectors have closed the building
until repairs are made and a structural engineer has
declared it safe.
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