François Jourdan, Global Marketing Vice President, Terex Cranes

• How is the Terex crane business developing?

Our 2010 turnover, slightly down, stands at $1.78 billion. 2011 will be better than 2010. The markets are stable, even slightly higher than in 2010. Terex performs better in North America, is stable in Europe, and we have progressed in the emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. The European tower crane market is off to a new start. Furthermore, we are lucky to be positioned in heavy infrastructure construction, which is a busy segment.

The all-purpose crane market is stable. But investment suffers from the lack of credit facilities.

Asia was relatively immune to the crisis so this region still has excellent growth prospects.

• Why did you acquire Demag Cranes?

We have added handling machinery and harbour cranes to our product offering. This provides specialisms, generating more than $1 billion supplementary turnover. These products will be grouped under two new departments related to Terex Cranes.

• Why are you exhibiting at Intermat 2012?

We intend to obtain sales leads in North Africa, which is important at this time; and France enjoys a privileged position in the region due to the recent Arab spring. It’s naturally the exhibition’s role to attract professionals to Paris next year. We will also take advantage of Intermat 2012 to display our full offering under a single brand, notably to the major French groups who are not only the most powerful but also the most technical and high-performing in the world.

• Haven’t you lost clients by placing your products under one umbrella brand?

Quite the contrary. By taking over from Demag, PPM, American Cranes, Peiner, Comedil, Atlas Weyhausen, P&H, Lorain, Fantuzzi, etc., mustered during the formation of Terex Cranes, the widely acknowledged Terex brand is on a strong growth trend without losing its traditional brands’ client bases. This strategy, implemented since 2010, has now been extended to our truck-mounted cranes produced in China. These are equipped with the Challenger cabin, designed by Porsche. And we continue to apply our policy of manufacturing these models, which fit as closely as possible with market requirements. This is true of the all-purpose RT 100 crane and the Roadmaster truck-mounted cranes manufactured in both the USA and Europe.

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