Stahl reorganises in Asia

The company’s Asian headquarters in Singapore was re-registered in January as Stahl CraneSystems Pte. Asia Pacific sales and marketing general manager Simon Chan has been appointed the director of the new operation, following the retirement of previous director, Manfred Koths, scheduled for the end of April.

The Singapore headquarters covers Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India. In 2005, Asia took 20% of the company’s order book.

The company is in the process of setting up a new company in China, Stahl CraneSystems (Shanghai) Co Ltd. The company will work independently from the Singapore operations. Chan will also lead this unit. Until the application for the company is approved by the Chinese government, which the company expects will happen this month, it is trading through its old parent company, R Stahl Ex-proof (Shanghai). The company plans to target the special crane and engineered crane markets, such as auto and petrochemical applications, as well as the high end of the market. It is also looking to employ sales staff in Guangzhou, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

Chan joined Stahl in 1996 as regional sales and marketing manager, and was made Asian sales and marketing general manager in April 2004. Before joining Stahl, he worked in project management for a Singaporean heavy lifting engineering company, and in business development for Sembawang Engineering & Construction (Singapore). He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical and production engineering from the National University of Singapore in 1992, and an MBA from Strathclyde Graduate Business School in Glasgow, UK ten years later.

Stahl also has operations in the Middle East - led by Werner Mattenklodt - and the Americas.