New Year, New Opportunities?

While innovation and invention showing no signs of slowing down, there is no divine right to have the ability to invest in new equipment, or a pipeline of projects to cater and tender for. In this issue, we look at how Italy has had a tough time, but the economy is now showing signs of life. Rhian Owen investigates how the country's wobbly economy is affecting Italy's hoist manufacturers and distributors, and how one firm is strengthening its position by growing their export sales.

Earlier this year, Italy's finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan fought to reassure Italians that they would not be following Greece into a financial sinkhole. His message - reported in Italy's largest daily newspaper the Corriere della Sera - intended to assuage nervous Italians watching the Greek economic crisis as well as placate investors, whose confidence in the country is critical to its stability.

The images in the media, Greeks queuing up in front of banks desperate to access their money before the banks closed (which they did, for three weeks) are especially threatening in Italy, which has only just begun to see signs of growth in its economy after six years of stagnation and recession. We focus in more detail on page 18 onwards. We also take a look, thanks to Sally Spencer, at how the control of lifting equipment via radio remote control systems has become increasingly common throughout all industry sectors over the years and, far from being perceived as an 'added extra', it is now very much the norm.

It offers greater operational flexibility and, as the user can keep clear of the area where the hoist or overhead crane is working, it provides significant health and safety benefits.

Another key factor in the growing demand for remote control is that the operators now working in the sector are likely to be of a generation that is much more at ease with console technology.

In this volume, we also have an exclusive interview with Bill Schneider jr, vice president, SISSCO Material Handling, who talks frankly about the lifting sector.

"As many users know, there are certain applications for which overhead lifting can't be used," Schneider says. "So we are focusing on industries that default to forklift trucks that should be considering overhead lifting. Even if we take a small chunk of market share from forklifts, it would be a huge gain for overhead lifting."

He continues: "Overhead lifting can be accomplished in so many different ways but people tend to think about the obvious, which is floor-mounted or floor-traveling equipment. There are many quality manufacturers and distributors of overhead lifting equipment out there and we want to increase the awareness to the end users and specific industries to engage with these types of companies to see if they can provide a safer and more efficient solution."

Finally, in this issue, we explore how the rapid pace of globalization is transforming the shipbuilding business; ships are becoming larger with greater capacity.