Expanded product line at Oil & Steel

Marco Milesi, CEO of PM Group - owner of Oil & Steel - said Oil & Steel will expand its product range from 20 to 33 models by 2007, with 3.5% of annual turnover invested each year in product development. The Group is also about to go public on the Italian stock exchange, a move that will generate funds and allow it to “...buy new companies, to get stronger in our markets.” The PM Group includes PM lorry loader cranes and a scaffolding business.

Mr Milesi, speaking to AI at an Oil & Steel open day in Modena in June, said he was “confident of capacity growth of 30% per year for two, three years, enough to support double-digit sales rises, for sure.” That capacity comprises three assembly facilities centred on Modena and supported by a fabrication facility of 140 workers, opened two years ago, in Romania.

Current product developments include a 50 m working height Eagle S 5031 - the prototype pictured below at Modena is mounted on a 26 t GVW Iveco carrier - which has an outreach of 31 m on a 180 kg basket load. It follows 28 m and 43 m working height ‘S' range models launched at Intermat and precedes 32, 38, and 62 m models planned for later this year. Other new products include the recently released 10 m Octopussy crawler unit and a planned 21 m model.

PM Group reported a turnover of €131 million for 2005, with Oil & Steel accounting for sales of €40.1 million last year, said the company. It claimed a 40% share of the Italian market and a 17% share of the estimated €3 billion worldwide market for the product sector it defined as access platforms with outriggers. About 38% of sales were of its Snake line of articulated booms on light- and medium-trucks. Exports will become more important for the company, said Mr Milesi; “It is difficult to grow in Italy.”