5 minutes with Marc Philipp, director, sales, Stahl CraneSystems

Hoist: Marc what does your job entail? 

MP: Well, covering a wide geographic area with subsidiaries in EMEA as well as in Shanghai, Singapore, Dubai and India, you can imagine, I spent a lot of time in the air and in the markets with our local subsidiaries, supporting our channel customers on Crane, Hoist and Control Projects.  

We are customer focused and call our customers: Crane Partners. We support our Crane Partners by solving their high value lifting and motion control challenges, such as how to safely lift an LNG pump out of an LNG tank in an explosive environment and as a partner we are working towards mutual success, so we are not competing with them in the aftermarket service. 

….so, I enjoy dealing with people from different countries and different cultures, every day. It’s very enriching.  

Hoist: What are the main challenges in the market today? 

MP: The lifting industry has had a challenging year, especially due to Covid-19. Capital spending has been delayed and many verticals have been hit hard, like the O&G industry, but we are starting to see positive signs. 

Projects previously put on hold are being reviewed and requoted, especially in the offshore business, due to higher oil prices and the power plant business is picking up. But some markets are still fighting hard against Covid-19, take India or Indonesia for example, I just had a video conference with one of our Indian Crane Partners and it is still tough out there in some areas. But in general there is optimism in the marketplace, I think the lifting equipment industry will regain momentum in 2021 first in EMEA then also in the APAC region. 

Hoist: How are you dealing with the challenges of a growing economy? 

MP: On the one hand, managing an increase in business is very encouraging - after months of economic uncertainty, but on the other hand, we have to cope with limitations of the international supply. We have great people in operations and sales, working hard as a team to meet customers expectations to find creative solutions every day to fulfil our commitments towards our customers.  

Hoist: What projects do you have coming up? 

MP: Our passion as CSG within CMCO is to design and sell combined solutions: Stahl CraneSystems lifting products and Magnetek power and motion controls, along with our application and industry expertise, to meet customer expectations. 

For example, in the explosion proof business, Stahl CraneSystems as the world market leader for explosion proof hoist and crane components has been awarded through its partner network, multiple offshore crane kits for a project in the Arabian Gulf. 

We are using AS7 twin Wire Rope Hoists for an explosion proof Zone 2 application, suitable to operate in a corrosive environment at 50°C (122°F) ambient temperature. The challenging part in this project is to design the hoists and cranes for Offboat lifting at a wave height of 1m and operating wind speeds beyond 10meters per second. 

Hoist: Tell me about the webinar you have organised on harsh environment conditions? 

MP: The topic we presented on June 15 was related to: ‘Extreme environmental conditions: Tough Hoists for Rough use’. Over 150 participants attended the webinar. 

Think about a Water or Galvanizing Plants, or the Waste industries, the surrounding environmental conditions influence the overall hoist design, such as: Dusty & Abrasive / Cold or hot / Coastal atmospheres (corrosive & aggressive) / Tropical / Explosive. 

For example., we carried out a project related to a biomass project in Eastern Europe with a dusty, humid and aggressive environment due to the Fermentation Processes of the biomass which is a 10t WRH unit in a high duty ISO M 7 application…with a high durable rope guide to protect rope reeving when the grap is active. We equipped it with Variable Frequency Drives from Magnetek with regeneration units that feeds the energy back to the network grid.

Our next webinar is on September 14 (11 Uhr Berlin) and we are going to talk about:  ‘Safe crane solutions with explosion-proof lifting equipment’ followed by another event on November 9 (11 Uhr Berlin) related to: ‘A clean Deal: Industry-specific chain hoists’