All General Articles

Europe’s rental market continues to be ‘twin-track’ in terms of business confidence according to the IRN/ERA RentalTracker survey for the first quarter of 2011, with the Nordic countries, France and Germany remaining confident but the UK/Ireland, Benelux, Italy and Spain far less so.

United Rentals halved its net losses to US$20 million in the first quarter of 2011 and reported a 9.4% increase in revenues to US$523 million for the period. Rental revenues rose by 14.2% to $434 million.

Gérard Déprez, chief executive officer of Loxam – Europe’s largest equipment rental company – urged aerial platform manufacturers not to overlook the requirements of the European rental sector as they chase emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.

Volvo is moving its North American Volvo Rents business from the Volvo Construction Equipment division to become a subsidiary of AB Volvo.

Spain’s three main rental organisations for general equipment, aerial platforms and cranes have created a national rental confederation called ConfalQ (Confederation del Alquiler). The organisations believe that working together will help Spain’s beleaguered rental sector in lobbying government on issues such as payment terms.

Caterpillar is seeing growing demand for equipment rental as markets recover because contractors are still uncertain about investing in their own equipment.

Arcgen-Hilta, the UK-based producer of Arcgen, Hilta and SMC products is at the Intermat Middle East show in Abu Dhabi looking for distributors throughout the region and initial contacts look positive.

Intermat Middle East, the new construction equipment exhibition for the region, opened in Abu Dhabi today (Monday, March 28).

Wilson Jones, president of JLG Industries, said the market recovery was proving stronger than anticipated at the start of this year, with the top 20 rental companies in North America increasing investment; "We are seeing CapEx [from these companies] 30 to 50% higher than last year."

Haulotte said it was seeing the first signs that the larger European rental companies are starting to refresh their access fleets, following the lead of the major US renters. The company expects to double its global production this year.

Chicago Pneumatic (CP), the Atlas Copco business that sells basic site equipment such as light compaction, power, compressed air, hydraulic breakers and lighting tools, will become the sole brand used for light compaction equipment in North America, taking over from the Dynapac brand.

Allight Sykes, the Australian pumps, power, lighting tower and compressor specialist, is to start manufacturing lighting towers at a new facility in Dubai, the Middle East.

Volvo said it is ready to provide capital to assist its North American rental franchise partners expand their business and was “not afraid” of acquiring franchises if they were not capable of funding their own growth.

Komatsu said it hoped to resume normal production levels in mid-April following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Doosan Infracore Portable Power (DIPP) will use ConExpo to announce the worldwide rebranding of its range of generators, compressors and lighting towers, with the Doosan name to replace Ingersoll Rand.

Manitou has simplified its ownership structure with the Braud and Himsworth families retaining their majority shareholdings but removing the jointly owned SFERT holding company.

Pioneer Pump opened a pump assembly facility in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the end of 2010. The plant will assemble portable pumps for the rental and mining markets in southern Africa.

Continuing low demand in Europe could force JLG to cut the workforce at its Maasmechelen plant in Belgium by over a third. As many as 109 of the 279 current staff could lose their jobs.

Following the announcement that German rental company AFI GmbH is going into administration, AFI-Uplift in the UK has said this will have no impact at all on its business

Manitou and Terex are extending their aerial platform manufacturing cooperation with Terex now to supply three electric slab scissors for sale by Manitou.