Construction news briefs
CRANE GIANTS JOIN
Manitowoc Company has completed its acquisition of Potain – combining two of the biggest crane manufacturing companies on earth. Manitowoc, a US-based manufacturer of high-capacity lattice-boom crawler cranes, has paid $307 million for Potain, a French-based manufacturer of tower cranes. Potain is becoming part of Manitowoc’s crane segment, creating one of the world’s largest producers of lifting solutions for the construction and equipment retail industries, with products which include lattice-boom crawler cranes, tower cranes, boom trucks and other lifting equipment.
BRAMBLES CLOSURES
Brambles new industrial services division based in Belgium has sacked workers, sold off cranes and other equipment and shut down two of its depots in Australia. Workers at the company’s Athol Park depot in Adelaide and Carrington depot in Newcastle have been sacked without notice. Seven mobile cranes, other lifting and moving equipment and most other equipment at the depots has been auctioned. Both depots have closed.
Astral project
Astral Calcining Corporation plans to build a $240 m petroleum carbon calcination plant at Gladstone in Queensland. Construction of the plant is to begin in late 2001. The new plant is to supply calcined petroleum carbon for the production of anodes for the potline operations of aluminium smelters.
LIMAK JOINS HEK
Alimak AB and HEK International Group, Swedish-based suppliers of vertical access equipment, have joined to form Intervect AB. Intervect is now one of the biggest suppliers of rack-and-pinion driven vertical access equipment in the world. The company says its existing network of subsidiary companies and distributors will be maintained.
WELDING KNOWHOW
The Welding Institute (TWI) in the UK has launched a new website as a resource for the construction industry and others. TWI says the website is the world’s most extensive on-line resource on welding, brazing, soldering, mechanical fastening, surfacing, coating, adhesive bonding, fabrication, non-destructive testing, structural integrity and fracture of steels, non-ferrous metals, plastics, composites, ceramics and textiles. The web address is: www.twi.co.uk.
ENERGY INITIATIVES
As the United States this year faces its worst energy shortage since the oil embargoes of the 1970s, the government is expediting a number of initiatives to increase the supply of energy to the country. These initiatives include: expediting a new natural gas pipeline from Alaska, authorising oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, supporting nuclear power as a prime source of energy, and building many more coal-fired power stations.
UNIONISTS EXCLUDED
Construction unions in the United Kingdom fear they are being denied jobs on some of the country’s biggest projects. TCWU national secretary Bob Blackman has been reported in Contract Journal as saying, “There is certainly a move to exclude the unions from a number of major projects. There is a situation where some employers have decided not to make unions a part of the project.” The UCATT is investigating three projects in particular: the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and the GCHQ building in Cheltenham.
3-Jul-2001