Konecranes

Konecranes Plc

Type	Public limited company
Traded as	OMX: KCR1V
Industry	Engineering and service
Founded	1994
Headquarters	Hyvinkää, Finland
Key people	Panu Routila (President and CEO), Stig Gustavson (Chairman)
Products	Heavy and standard lifting cranes and service
Revenue	MEUR 2,011.4 (2014)
Profit	MEUR 74.6 (2014)
Total assets	MEUR 1,477.367 (end 2014)
Total equity	MEUR 449.2 (end 2014)
Number of employees	11,920 (average, 2014)
Website	www.konecranes.com

Konecranes Plc (KCI Konecranes prior to 16 March 2007) is a Finnish company, headquartered in Hyvinkää, which specialises in the manufacture and service of cranes and lifting equipment as well as the service of machine tools. The firm produces about one in ten of the world's cranes, of which around 80% are for use in factories and the remainder at ports. Konecranes products are made for industries handling heavy loads meaning ports, intermodal terminals, shipyards and bulk material terminals. On August 11, 2015, the company announced that it intended to merge with Terex. Terex shareholders will own approximately 60% of the combined companies, but the transaction will result in the companies headquarters being relocated to Europe to benefit from favorable EU taxation policies.

Organization

Konecranes SMARTON winch

Stig Gustavson was the company's first CEO from 1994-2005 and has been Chairman Of the Board since 2005. The second CEO, Pekka Lundmark (2005-2015) joined KCI Konecranes in 2004, before that he worked e.g. for Hackman and Nokia. On April 2nd 2015 he was nominated as the new CEO of Fortum. The current President and CEO is Panu Routila (2015-) who joined the company from Ahlström Capital where he had been President and CEO since 2008.

Konecranes has 11,800 employees at 600 locations in 48 countries. and it is arranged into two business divisions - Equipment and Service (covering crane maintenance, safety and machine tool service).

Equipment

Equipment offers components, cranes, and material handling solutions for e.g. process industries, the nuclear sector, industries handling heavy loads, ports, inter-modal terminals, shipyards, and bulk material terminals. The business area offers products like industrial cranes, wire rope and chain hoists, crane components, workstation lifting systems, manual hoists, and medium to heavy forklifts.

Service

Konecranes offers maintenance and modernization services for industrial cranes, lifting equipment, and machine tools in 600 locations in 48 countries. The service products it offers are e.g. inspections, preventive maintenance programs, repairs and improvements, on-call service, spare parts and modernizations. There are almost 420,000 units under Konecranes maintenance contracts one fourth of them manufactured by Konecranes.

Group Executive Board

There are 7 members in Konecranes Group Executive Board.

1. Panu Routila, President and CEO
2. Teo Ottola, Chief Financial Officer, Deputy CEO
3. Fabio Fiorino, Executive Vice President, Business Area Service, Chief Customer Officer
4. Ryan Flynn, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Equipment
5. Mikko Uhari, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Technology
6. Juha Pankakoski, Chief Digital Officer
7. Timo Leskinen, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

History

The company was initially a division of Kone, who began to manufacture cranes and hoists in the 1930s, but was spun off as an independent company in 1994 when KONE underwent extensive restructuring.

Early years with KONE, from 1910 to 1994

Konecranes is a Corporate spin-off of Kone which was founded in 1910. But it was not until in 1933 when KONE Corporation started to build sizeable Electric Overhead Traveling Cranes in 1933 mainly for the pulp and paper and power industry. Three years later it started to manufacture Electric Wire Rope Hoists.

In 1947 the company started to make harbor cranes. In the post-war economy the harbor cranes business line experienced strong growth and in the 1960s KCI Konecranes signed the first Preventive Maintenance Contract with a customer.

In 1973 the company began to expand internationally and it bought Norwegian Wisbech-Refsum. In 1983 the company establishes R&M Materials Handling in Ohio, which was its first foothold in the USA and in 1986 the company acquired Verlinde from France. The organization was changed in 1988 and the crane operations were organized into the KONE Cranes Division of KONE Corporation.

Lloyds British Testing (which had operations in the UK and Australia) was acquired in 1991 and so the company started its first office in the UK. During the same year a large restructuring program was launched. Because of it crane production facilities were cut from 19 to 4 by 1994.

KCI Konecranes, from 1994 to 2006

KCI Konecranes was formed on April 15, 1994, when KONE Corporation group made some radical changes before it was listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. KONE kept its elevator business and sold others, including the operations of its crane division. Two years later also KCI Konecranes was listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange 1996 and has since grown to become a constituent member of the benchmark OMX Helsinki 25 index.

In 1997, KCI Konecranes expanded into Germany by acquiring German MAN SWF Krantechnik. Later KCI Konecranes experienced high organic growth in Germany, and in 2000 it made several bolt-on acquisitions.

In 2002, KCI Konecranes made history in China: it was the first foreign crane company to receive a complete range of business licensees (including import and export). Also in Japan a milestone was achieved by establishing a joint venture agreement with Meidensha Corporation. After an acquisition of Swedish SMV Lifttrucks AB in 2004 reach stackers and lift trucks were added to the product range. A year later, KCI Konecranes acquired German R.STAHL AG's material handling division, R.Stahl Fördertechnik and the following year MMH Holdings, Inc.

Konecranes, from 2006 onwards

The slogan of Konecranes: Lifting businesses

In 2006 KCI Konecranes launched a new refocused and unified global master brand strategy and identity, and the "KCI" was dropped from the brand name and the slogan "Lifting Businesses™" was introduced.

In 2007 all rights to German straddle carrier manufacturer Consens Transport Systeme GmbH's products were acquired and straddle carrier manufacturing was started. Other acquisitions included Norwegian Kongsberg Automation AS and Swedish Reftele Maskinservice AB.

In 2008 Konecranes wanted to increase its presence in the Japanese hoist market, and so it raised its share holding in Meiden Hoist System Company Ltd (MHS) from 49 to 65 percent. It also wanted to expand its activities in Spain so it acquired crane, hoist and service companies Eydimen 2000 S.L. and Ausió Sistemas de Elevación S.L. Other acquisitions of that year were made in Scandinavia and in the UK.

In 2009 Konecranes entered a new business segment—aluminum rail systems and manipulators—with two acquisitions. It also introduced an industrial crane, SMARTON®, which was said to be capable of reducing power consumption and energy cost by up to one third. Konecranes bought 65% of Sanma Crane manufacture Co. Ltd., one of the leading hoist and crane manufacturers in China.

In 2010 Konecranes announced six acquisitions related to Machine Tool Service (MTS) in Denmark, in the UK and in the USA. In 2011 Konecranes acquired WMI Cranes Ltd. (WMI) from India and Saudi Arabian crane manufacturer Saudi Cranes & Steel Works Factory Company Limited (“Saudi Cranes”).

In 2012 Konecranes introduced a hybrid power option for its RTGs (Rubber tyred gantry crane). With the help of new hybrid (diesel/electric) power sources for RTGs, diesel consumption at ports can be reduced by over 60 percent. The first electrified rubber-tyred gantry cranes (ERTG) in the United States were unveiled by the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) in December 2012. The new technology reduces fuel consumption by an estimated 95 percent. The new ERTG system was developed with the help of Konecranes, Conductix-Wampfler and Georgia Power.

In 2013 Konecranes launched the world's first hybrid reach stacker for container handling. Its lifting capacity is 45 tons and it will cut fuel consumption by around 10 litres per hour. In March 2013 Konecranes launched a Remote Monitoring and Reporting tool, TRUCONNECT. It allows lift truck operators to track the usage, efficiency and productivity of their lift trucks through a remote connection. The data is transmitted wirelessly to the Konecranes Remote Data Center, where it is analysed and compiled in online views and reports, accessible 24/7 through a password-protected Customer Portal. In June 2013, Konecranes launched a new Automated RTG (ARTG) system. It copes with wide range of surface variations in RTG container yards. In November 2013, Konecranes developed an auto start-stop feature that turns off the lift truck engine when it idles for a period of time. This function helps reduce fuel consumption by 5-15% along with CO2 emissions.

Merger-

On 11 August 2015, Konecranes announced merger with Material Handling solutions giant Terex. It is a US based organisation and the merger is treated as "Merger of Equals".

Customers

RTG aka Rubber tyred gantry crane by Konecranes in Finnish factory

Konecranes has customers all over the world. Some examples:

• In 2010 Konecranes won contract worth of 80 million Euros to supply the Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC) a container terminal operating system (TOS) and 30 automated stacking cranes (ASCs).

• In 2011 Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) ordered 20 Konecranes RTG cranes and four Super Post Panamax STS (ship-to-shore) cranes from Konecranes for Port of Savannah.

• The new Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT) in Vung Tau province of Vietnam ordered 6 Konecranes port equipment in 2011. Konecranes set up an office in Vietnam.

• The Slovenian Luka Koper Container Terminal, the largest such terminal in the Northern Adriatic has more than ten machines from Konecranes in use, e.g. 3 sixteen-wheeled RTGs that were delivered in October 2012. E.g. in 2011, the Container Terminal handled and stored record amounts of container freight with throughput amounting to nearly 590,000 TEUs by the end of the year.

• In 2012 Konecranes won a tender to supply its CXT Wire Rope Hoists to CITIC Pacific’s Sino Iron project worth $5 billion. The project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region is the largest magnetite iron ore mining and processing project in Australia.

• In 2013 Konecranes got a contract to deliver the first automated container yard for Indonesia state owned terminal operator, Indonesia Port Corporations, PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III (Pelindo III). The value of the order, which consists of 10 ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, 20 automated stacking cranes (ASC) and five straddle carriers (SC), is thought to be more than €100M.

• in 2014 delivery of 20 stacking was completed at Port Jersey in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Awards

• In 2010 Konecranes’ new RFID based NearGuard System for heavy lift trucks and reach stackers won the IMHX Design 4 Safety award in the UK.

• In 2011 The Chief Information Officer of Konecranes, Antti Koskelin, was Finland's seventh CIO of the Year. He was seen as a "capable interpreter between IT and business" and his social and networking skills were commended.

• In 2011 Konecranes UK Ltd won a gold medal in the health and safety competition organized by the prestigious ROSPA

• Konecranes’ "Smarter Cabin" crane cabin won the prestigious Finnish Fennia Prize in 2012. Thanks to the 60 percent larger window area the smarter cabin gives the driver remarkably improved visibility. The better visibility was ensured by studying the sight lines from the operator's chair to the critical working areas in close co-operation with Konecranes' customers. The observers were not only observed but also interviewed. The Fennia Prize is a design competition organized by Design Forum Finland and Festia Group for companies producing designed goods or applying design in their operations.

• In March 2013 Konecranes got the famous Red Dot award, "Product design 2013", for the design quality of Konecranes’ multibranded electric chain hoist series launched a year before. The winning product series included identities for the Konecranes brand and its brands like Verlinde, SWF, R&M, and STAHL CraneSystems.

• In January 2014, Agilon material handling system received Fennia Prize Honorary Mention 2014. In March 2014, Konecranes received Red Dot award, "Product design 2014", for the design quality of the Agilon material management solution. The patented Agilon materials inventory and management system can be used for storing large sum of different components, and it allows real-time information on the components to be shared with various parties in the supply chain.

External links

• Official website