Volume 8 Issue 1
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 $5.00
E D U C AT I O N
FORECAST
Canada’s crane manufacturers hope for business bump in 2017 Diversity of markets help overhead crane makers come to grips with hard times S AU L C H E R N O S
hat do marble-slab countertops in B.C., oil in Alberta, cars and trucks in Ontario, and shipbuilding in the Maritimes have in common? They all strongly influenced markets for overhead cranes last year and stand to do the same in 2017. Business across Canada was mixed last year and maintaining a diverse business strategy helped save the day, industry reps say. “Markets are quite quiet right Munck Cranes Inc. of Stoney Creek, Ont., has a diverse market for its products, which now,” says Neil Humphry, who include this 30-tonne top-running double-girder overhead crane. oversees sales at North VanPhoto courtesy of Munck Cranes Inc. couver-based Canco Cranes & “Our manufacturing is down quite a bit, but our Equipment Ltd., which designs, service is up,” Humphry says. “We make more money manufactures, installs and service a wide variety of doing service and repairs than we do building cranes, kinds of overhead cranes for a customer base spread so from that aspect it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s across Canada and as far afield as Siberia, Indonesia, and Bermuda. continued on page 8
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INFRASTRUCTURE
Swing bridge installation requires 250-ton Grove Bridge over lock on Ontario’s Trent-Severn Waterway completed ahead of schedule
Hastings Bridge was opened to vehicular traffic close to a month ahead of schedule.
JEFFREY CARTER
he construction and installation of a bridge at Lock 18, part of the Trent-Severn Waterway system in Ontario, is now complete but there’s more work ahead, according to a spokesman with Parks Canada. “The replacement of the swing bridge in the Village of Hastings is part of an unprecedented $3 billion investment by the federal government to support infrastructure work to heritage, visitor, waterway, and highway assets located within national historic sites, national parks, and national marine conservation areas across
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Marlin Schmidt, Alberta’s minister of advanced education, takes the controls of a Terex crawler crane as crane and hoist instructor Wade Bernard stands by during a showcase event of new cranes at the Northern Lakes College campus at Slave Lake, Alta. Photo contributed
New heavy-lift equipment displayed at Alberta college Terex HC80 crawler among machines demonstrated during showcase event at Northern Lakes College lberta’s Northern Lakes College recently showcased several new pieces of lifting equipment — including an 80-tonne Terex crawler — at the college’s Slave Lake campus and headquarters. The celebratory event, which took place Aug. 12, welcomed industry owners, crane operators, and the public to a barbecue, ribbon-cutting, and equipment demonstrations, said a news release from the college. Alberta’s advanced education ministry provided the “financial boost” needed to buy the equipment and expand the program, the release said. As reported earlier in Crane & Hoist Canada, the college received $3.5 million in total from Alberta’s Apprenticeship & Industry Training system to buy the equipment. The system is a partnership between industry and the provincial government.
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