Newsline - December 2000/January 2001

The last two issues of Newsline have drawn attention to the earlier activities of the FMCEC, particularly during the past 25 years, culminating in David Barrell’s retirement as Director General. When planning for the future we can frequently gain from looking at the past. What follows is a reminder of its activities for the benefit of crane manufacturers, by Alan Skipper, who for over 25 years was the Director of the Crane Group in the Federation.

In Part 1 of the Review of the FMCEC, David referred to the Association of Crane Makers having been absorbed into the Federation. One of the aims of this was to bring under one umbrella the manufacturers of mobile cranes who had been split between the two organisations. A Cranes and Excavators Group was formed with representation on Council. Within the Group sections were set up for mobile cranes and excavators, electric overhead travelling (EOT) cranes and steelworks cranes, dockside cranes and tower cranes. Later another section represented lifting equipment manufacturers, following the absorption of the Lifting Equipment Manufacturers Association.

All this took place just before an extremely tough time for the engineering industry. As at that time a large part of the home market for British heavy crane makers was in the public sector and nationalised industries, due to cuts in public expenditure 90% of the home market had disappeared.

Various meetings took place with Government to make them aware of the problems facing the crane sector. Meetings were held with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the Secretary of State for Transport, officials from the Department of Trade and Industry, the Central Electricity Generating Board, the Naval Dockyards and the Ports authorities. At that time the crane makers were represented on the Mechanical Handling Sector Working Party which had been set up by the National Economic Development Office and the concerns of the crane industry were also voiced at its various meetings.

The crane makers had always been strong on technical and safety matters and technical committees were set up within the FMCEC to co-ordinate work on standards and legislation affecting cranes and excavators. The FMCEC also took over UK representation of the crane makers and the lifting equipment manufacturers in the European organisation, Fédération Européenne de la Manutention (FEM). FMCEC members played a leading part in the work of FEM on technical and commercial matters.

The crane makers had suffered from the proliferation of standards and legislation and were pleased therefore to play a very active part in the work of standardisation through the British Standards Institution and the International Standards Organisation and subsequently in the European standards work through the Committee Européenne Norme. As a result of the UK joining the Common Market it became even more important for the crane makers to have a representative organisation as efforts were made to eliminate the differences in standards and legislation in Europe.

With a view to ensuring the continuation of expertise in the crane industry an annual residential training course was run by the FMCEC at Loughborough University for young engineers employed by member companies. One of the main objects of the course was to broaden the knowledge of the younger technicians employed by members. Experts in a wide field of relevant subjects gave lectures and the courses were much valued by those who attended.

A considerable amount of work was also undertaken on a proposal that there should be a Centre of Excellence, which would have been a focal point for the advancement of British crane and lifting equipment technology. Meetings took place with appropriate universities but, unfortunately, there were various problems and although it was agreed that the idea was an excellent one it could not proceed. Government financial assistance was obtained for the carrying out of a comparative study of Standards for EOT cranes. The main objective of the study was to collect and compare British, Overseas and International Standards relating to such cranes and their components. This enabled a commentary to be prepared on the main differences between the standards and on the effect these had on resulting crane designs. A comprehensive volume was produced with a restricted circulation to FMCEC members.

On the commercial side comprehensive marketing statistics were produced for all the product sectors within the Group. These were mostly produced on a monthly basis on a non-disclosure basis and covered totals of orders received and invoiced sales. The FMCEC encouraged the development of international versions. In addition a number of overseas trade missions to the difficult countries in the world (China, Korea, Iran and Iraq to name a few) gave many UK crane makers a chance to assess market opportunities and meet senior representatives of public and other purchasing organisations. These facilities still exist within the FMCEC but sadly there are not as many UK crane manufacturers now as there were. Model conditions of sale were drawn up which were made available to members.

Following a visit by an inward mission from China an outward mission to that country was organised by the Group in view of the interest which the Chinese had shown in mechanical handling equipment. A full programme of discussions and visits took place and the mission was most helpful in appraising members of the Chinese market for their equipment.

Although much work had been done the early 1980’s again saw a difficult time for the crane industry and members were unsettled by proposals for a much larger organisation for the mechanical handling industry. As a result some key players withdrew from the FMCEC and the Group had to be disbanded.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about the earlier activities of the Federation - let us know your views on current and previous items.