JLG president forecasts 'robust' growth

Frank Nerenhausen, president of JLG Industries, has told AI that North America should see good growth over the coming years thanks to non-residential spending and the profitable energy sector.

The comments came in an interview published in the March/April issue of the magazine, now available to view or download on this website.

He said, “Housing is still not at a normal pace but projections for growth for 2014 are quite robust and I think we are still in early stages of seeing non-residential spending increase; so you put those altogether and you have a fairly positive runway for 2014 and beyond. Then you have the energy sector which kicks in on top of that.”

Concerning investment plans of the big rental companies in North America, Mr Nerenhausen added, “Their cap-ex is perhaps flattish to slightly increasing year-over-year but there is some growth capital starting to move into the mix.”

Telehandlers has been a good segment in North America of late, which Mr Nerenhausen said had been going from strength-to-strength, a trend that’s set to continue this year.

At ConExpo JLG showed two models in its newly upgraded SkyTrak telehandler series, the 10054 and 8042.

“SkyTrak is an extraordinarily popular machine in the construction markets and we are not trying to reposition that product we are just giving it some features to maintain that popularity; so putting in ergonomically-correct features in the cab, giving it some more precise controllability, giving it an air-conditioning option.”

See more comments about other products launched at ConExpo and the world markets in the March/April issue.