“Like many other industries in EMEA, the access equipment industry has experienced challenges and uncertainties in recent months, and this is due to economic fluctuations, regulatory changes, and global events… JLG remains committed to adapting to market dynamics and meeting the evolving needs of our customers.”
Karel Huijser, JLG’s General Manager Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) recently shared these market insights in an exclusive interview with Access International magazine. Here is a recap of his comments on the changes happening within the access industry…
Industry challenges
Huijser says supply chain challenges remain a storyline for the access industry. Although the availability of many components has normalized in the last year, some are still hard to get.
“…disruptions in Red Sea shipping routes have generally caused prices to increase and delivery times to lengthen. At JLG, we have noticed that hydraulics and electric commodities have the most backorders. Still, we are working hard with our suppliers to minimize the impact of supply chain issues on our customers.”
Anti-dumping investigation
Following a similar path as North America, the European Commission (EC) is now investigating the alleged dumping of MEWPs exported from China, which effectively undercuts existing suppliers in a non-competitive way.
In his AI interview, Huijser says he personally welcomes the investigation. “Healthy and fair competition is vital for developing a robust European industry. I think a swift and decisive resolution by the European Commission to restore a level playing field for all manufacturers who, like JLG, invest heavily in developing world-leading products would be the best outcome.”
Huijser notes in the interview that JLG is constantly — and proactively — working to address this challenge for customers by focusing on its equipment's unique selling points.
“Listening to our customers' concerns and continually improving our products to meet their needs also helps us stand out from the competition.”
Local manufacturing
JLG continues to expand its regional manufacturing footprint, increasingly becoming more localized and targeted.
“These smaller plants were part of a larger strategic plan to fulfill region-specific needs and requirements to serve large markets for JLG equipment. Having smaller local facilities means we can move more products and respond to changing customer demands quickly,” says Huijser.
Product developments
The EMEA access equipment market follows global urbanization and sustainability trends, calling for OEMs to produce machines with smaller footprints to fit into restricted spaces and “greener” models to meet increasingly stricter environmental regulations.
As for other products, Huijser says that the JLG team is always hard at work on innovations that will revolutionize the access equipment industry and provide customers with even greater capabilities and solutions.
“Ultimately,” he concludes in the interview, “by designing our products and solutions, we aim to enrich people’s lives by redefining job sites. This applies not only to the job sites of our customers but also to the workplaces and lives of our employees.”
Read Karel Huijser’s full interview with AI at Interview: JLG’s vision outside the Americas - Access Briefing.
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