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NMHG makes half a million 
GREENVILLE, NC, United StatesNacco Materials Handling Group (NMHG) has celebrated production of its 500,000th forklift, the Hyster E80AC, at the Greenville, North Carolina, plant.
Greenville plant manager Don Mills paid tribute to NMHG employees for their dedication and commitment to quality and delivery he said was consistent with the same high standards implemented when the plant opened 32 years ago.
According to Cox News Service, NMHG’s Greenville presence began when its predecessor, Eaton Corp, opened a 350,000 square foot (32,516 sqaure metre) plant in the Greenville Industrial Park in 1974. The Greenville plant then had 128 employees, manufactured two models of forklifts and delivered 300 units in 1974.
In 1984, Nacco Industries took over the business and it became known as Yale Materials Handling Corp. In 1989, Hyster-Yale Materials Holding Inc Nacco was formed and the name was later changed to NMHG.
Today NMHG Greenville’s 500,000 square foot (46,452 square metre) facility has more than 600 employees and manufactures more than 28,000 forklifts annually. NMHG, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, sells forklifts under the Hyster and Yale brands.
National Fork Truck Heritage Centre founder and owner James Brindley said the first commercial forklift in the world was a Yale.
“In 1924, the Clark Company produced a prototype lifting machine. Its operating mechanism was very basic and relied totally on open linked chains for its lifting capability. Due to the machine having no tilt facility, it is extremely doubtful it was designed to handle unit loads.
“As such, the Yale Company was the first to see the potential in producing a truck to deal with unit loads and, in 1925, built the first commercial battery-powered truck to have raising forks and a mast with tilting capability,” Brindley said.
To view a picture of the first forklift, a Yale 1925, see last week’s industry profile on James Brindley. | Linde offer could “paralyse” BOC
DÜSSELDORF, GermanyBOC management repeated its reservations about Linde’s offer to buy the British gas group at a shareholders’ meeting last Friday ( Forkliftaction.com News #244).
BOC chairman Rob Margetts said the takeover could paralyse BOC for months and did not reflect the group’s growth potential.
Margetts referred to the 10-month period of uncertainty that followed BOC agreeing to a preconditional offer from Air Products and Air Liquide six years ago. The offer failed to get regulatory clearance.
“Whether or not the issues are less in the case of Linde does not hide the fact that regulatory clearance was a precondition. The unsolicited approach from Linde also contained regulatory hurdles as a precondition, which meant your company would inevitably have to suffer a further period of uncertainty while these were being examined,” he told shareholders.
“These preconditions were onerous enough but also the proposal failed to take account of the growth prospects for your company.”
German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that institutional BOC shareholders who wanted management to negotiate with Linde believed a higher offer was possible.
Financial sources believe Linde has enough room to manoeuvre to increase its offer from GBP15 (USD26.70) a share to GBP16 (USD28.45) a share, the report said.
Linde spokesperson Uwe Wolfinger would not comment on speculation the group would sell its forklift business to finance a possible acquisition of BOC. |
| BT axes Prime-Mover
MUSCATINE, IA, United StatesBT Prime-Mover is removing the Prime-Mover brand from the market to meet increasing demand for other products.
Ilidio Alves, Prime-Mover general manager for sales & marketing, told MHEDA Connection that resources used for the Prime-Mover brand needed to be released to support growth of the corporation’s other main brands.
“The decision results from the increase we expect from Toyota and Raymond, which will translate into increased volume for the Muscatine, Iowa, plant where Prime-Mover products were built,” Alves said.
According to MHEDA Connection, the company will accept orders for Prime-Mover products through to July 20, 2006, and will continue to handle warranty issues during the transitional period.
The Muscatine Journal reported that changes announced to employees on January 19 included five layoffs related to elimination of the field sales & marketing departments. It cited human resources director Corbett Howard.
Howard said more layoffs could occur in the next six to eight months as the brand was phased out.
The Prime-Mover Company was founded in 1950 by the Home-O-Nize Company in Muscatine, Iowa (now HON Industries). The first product built was a power buggy acquired from Bell Aircraft. Prime-Mover diversified and expanded into materials handling in the 1960s.
In December 1988, BT Industries AB, of Sweden, bought Prime-Mover and the name changed to BT Prime-Mover Inc. In 1997, BT Industries AB acquired Raymond Corp, of Greene, New York, and BT Raymond was established.
In June 2000, Toyota Automatic Loom Works Ltd (now Toyota Industries Corporation) acquired BT Industries. | | TCM | FG25 | 2000 | United States | USD 13999 | Details | | Skytrak | 6036 | 2001 | United States | USD 42000 | Details | | Caterpillar | M50DSA | 1990 | United States | USD 900 | Details | | Mitsubishi | FG30 | 1998 | Mexico | USD 11000 | Details | | Jungheinrich | ECE-A20G | 1994 | Germany | EUR 650 | Details | | Toyota | 7FG25 | 1998 | Australia | AUD 15500 | Details | | WTC | EPT-2000-200212 | 2003 | Turkey | EUR 2500 | Details | | BT | HMX-65 | 1999 | United States | USD 1990 | Details | | Lull | 644 E-42 | 2003 | United States | USD 55000 | Details | | Esslingen | DFG 50 | 1972 | Germany | EUR 2300 | Details | | HAULOTTE | H7746 | 2005 | United States | USD 74000 | Details | | Multiton Mic | MIC-G-120-C-360-T | 1995 | Malaysia | USD 1905 | Details | | Big Joe | PDM20-154 | - | Australia | AUD 7000 | Details | | Caterpillar | DP40 | 1999 | Mexico | USD 15000 | Details |
and thousands more... Click here to include your used forklifts, stackers, telehandlers, container handlers, attachments etc. | New York Pon to buy Wisconsin Lift Truck
NEW YORK, NY, United StatesNew York-based Pon North America Inc wants to buy Wisconsin Lift Truck to expand its dealer locations.
Pon, whose parent company is Netherlands-based Pon Holdings BV, a 100-year-old privately owned materials handling equipment distributor in the USA and Europe, told Forkliftaction.com News it has signed a letter of intention to buy Wisconsin Lift Truck and its Illinois Materials Handling division.
Pon currently has four materials handling companies: Material Handling Services, in Illinois and Wisconsin; LeveeLift, in Indiana and Kentucky; Equipment Depot, in Texas; and Portman Equipment Company, in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia
Wisconsin Lift Truck has been in business for 40 years, and has eight locations in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Pon plans to consolidate Wisconsin Lift Truck and Illinois Materials Handling with Material Handling Services.
Combined, the companies will operate in 12 Wisconsin and Illinois locations, have been in business for more than 90 years and employ more than 750 people, almost half of whom are service technicians. | Kaup and EMC go exclusive
BRISBANE, AustraliaThe wholly family-owned EMC Group is now Kaup’s exclusive dealer in Australia and New Zealand.
The Brisbane-based company formed EMC Attachments this year to offer the complete range of Kaup attachments and European manufactured forks.
EMC managing director Stefan Marschner said the division was formed to distinguish it from the group’s forklift parts business, EMC Forklift Parts.
A Kaup spokesperson said the European company was happy to be working with EMC.
“We are very excited about the prospect of working closely together with EMC and hope for a successful partnership in Australia and New Zealand,” she said.
TVH Australasia was Kaup’s former exclusive dealer in Australia.
Rob Avenell, CEO of TVH Australasia, said this did not impact significantly on his company.
“We are not known as an attachment provider. We are big on tynes, parts and accessories. Our business with Kaup wouldn’t even rate one percentage point,” he said. | |
| Opera singing kept forklift driver focused
TORONTO, CanadaA woman who used to sing opera while driving a forklift is in the final six of Canadian reality TV show Bathroom Divas.
The Vancouver Sun reported Emili Losier, 21, from Hope, British Columbia, had her first singing lesson from a retired opera singer when she was seven. At 13, she learned singing from Caroline Harder, at the Chilliwack Academy of Music.
After graduating from high school, Losier got a job in a water-bottling plant where she operated a forklift.
She said singing songs from Phantom of the Opera and The Marriage of Figaro while she worked 12-hour shifts loading pallets of water into trucks kept her focused on her work.
Bathroom Divas will culminate in the final episode where the winner will debut at Roy Thompson Hall with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. | Wholesale rental for Oz dealers
BRISBANE, QLD, AustraliaFormer TVH Australasia CEO Steve Cunliffe has joined forces with old friend Adrian Martin to rent forklifts to Australian dealers.
Cunliffe is now Martin’s business partner in Fork Source, a Rocklea-based forklift specialist company supplying forklift dealers and equipment rental companies with short-term hire.
The pair bought Clontarf-based Forklift Sales Queensland (FSQ) for more than AUD1 million (USD0.75 million) to support the wholesale rental business. FSQ would provide used forklifts for Fork Source’s rental fleet, Martin said.
The two companies, to be run as separate businesses, are expected to provide a combined annual turnover of more than AUD5 million (USD3.77 million).
Cunliffe said the concept of wholesale forklift rentals would offer “speedy service” to forklift dealers.
Martin, who established Fork Source in 1999, said his business was evolving and he could no longer do it alone.
“That’s (Fork Source) the dearest thing to my heart and we aim to grow it and make it bigger,” he said.
Fork Source’s rental fleet has about 300 forklifts from Komatsu, Nissan, Nichiyu, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Crown, Hyster, Yale, Nichiyu and Moffett Mounty. |
| Sixteenth time for Freeport
FREEPORT, TX, United StatesPort Freeport, one of the Texas Gulf Coast’s largest container ports, has been recognised for excellence in financial reporting for the 16th consecutive year.
The Government Finance Officers’ Association of the USA and Canada (GFOA) awarded Port Freeport a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR).
Port Freeport managing director Phyllis Saathoff received an award for financial reporting achievement, as she was primarily responsible for preparing the CAFR.
The CAFR was judged to have met the high standards of the program that includes demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate the organisation’s financial story and motivate potential users to read the CAFR.
The GFOA is a professional association of state, provincial and local finance officers in the USA and Canada. It has served the public finance profession since 1906 and today has about 16,000 members. | Briefs Gehl races with Rahal
WEST BEND, WI, United States
Telehandler manufacturer Gehl Company has partnered with North American open-wheel racing team Rahal Letterman Racing for the 2006 racing season.
Gehl will sponsor Graham Rahal’s Mi-Jack Conquest Racing Champ Car Atlantic Series effort and establish an integrated marketing program with Rahal Letterman Racing’s IRL IndyCar Series program.
Dan Keyes, vice president of sales & marketing, said: “Graham is a fine young man, not to mention one of the top up-and-coming drivers in the country. He will be a perfect spokesman for our company and our products.”
Supermarket chain fined for unsafe workplace
MELBOURNE, Australia
Woolworths Ltd, one of Australia’s biggest retailers, has been fined AUD100,000 for failing to properly train a teenage worker hurt while lifting a bag of onions.
The company pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to two charges relating to its failure to provide and maintain a safe workplace and train a 17-year-old casual worker at its now-closed Safeway store at Mulgrave.
Magistrate Phillip Goldberg was told that, previously, injuries had occurred in Woolworths stores resulting from moving pallets with a pallet jack and other produce and product handling tasks. |
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EMC Attachments is created As the official representative of the Kaup product in Australian and New Zealand EMC Group is proud to announce EMC Attachments ™ to the industry. The creation of EMC Attachments ™ will offer a dedicated team that will provide specific services for quality handling solutions for forklifts. This will compliment the core forklift parts business to offer something unique to the industry. Click here for the full text of this release, including pictures. | | |
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Hoist Liftruck - Neptune Series Marina Liftruck  Hoist Liftruck is poised to provide the same quality and reliable liftruck to the marina industry as it has for the past 100 years to other heavy-duty industries. The Neptune Series Marina Liftruck meets the demands of marina owners/operators to dry-stack boats with its tight maneuverability, easy operation and corrosion protection. This pneumatic series, modeled after Hoist’s proven line of liftrucks, has a capacity range of 15,000 to 25,000 pounds with a 96-inch load center. Click here for more information on this product, including pictures. |
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| Jobs | 1. Sales Representatives (advertising) - Full timeVarious, Australia 2. Parts Manager/Inside Sales - Full timeAtlanta, GA, United States 3. Sr. Buyer - Full timeGreenville, NC, United States 4. Sales Reps Internal - Full timeBayswater/Victoria, Australia 5. Sales Reps External - Full timeBayswater/Victoria, Australia 6. Forklift Mechanic - Full timeBrisbane, Queensland, Australia 7. Service Technician - Full timeNashville, United States 8. Territory Manager - Full timeGrand Rapids, MI, United States 9. Customer Service Representative - Full timeGrand Rapids, MI, United States 10. Journeyman forklift technician - Full timeRenton, United States 11. Trainer - Forklift Maintenance - Full timeLouisville, KY, United States |
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Editorial Calendar |
January
Explosion proof forklifts
February
Forklifts in the logging and timber industry
March
Industrial batteries and chargers
April
The forklift market in China
May
Reach stackers
June
Forklift tyres, wheels and castors
July
The German forklift industry
August
Container attachments
September
Truck mounted forklifts
October
Engines and drive trains
November
The forklift market in Canada
December
End of year review
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