US loader crane manufacturer Iowa Mould Tooling (IMT) has signed a partnership deal with Danish manufacturer Højbjerg Maskinfabrik (HMF). IMT will have exclusive rights sell HMF knuckle boom loaders in the USA alongside its own range of stiff boom cranes.
The HMF cranes are based on existing models, slightly customised for the US market. They will be branded as IMT in the USA, which is virgin territory for HMF.
The deal follows the apparent breakdown of a similar arrangement signed in 1997 with Autogru PM of Italy.
HMF is initially supplying cranes in the classes 4tm, 5tm, 6tm, 10.5tm, 12tm and 14tm, but IMT also plans to offer larger HMF models that compete with its own PM cranes. For example, an HMF 19tm HDL crane was shown in IMT’s colours at the World of Concrete show last month. Models up to 35tm in capacity will also become available, overlapping with PM.
The deal with PM allowed the Italian company to leave its US dealer network in place for at least five years, effectively working in competition with IMT. However, according to PM, after a year of this arrangement IMT wanted PM to abandon its dealers – a move PM felt unable to comply with.
“We were happy with our dealers. They did a good job for us,” said PM’s export manager Giampaolo Manzini, who spoke to Cranes Today last month shortly before leaving the company after 28 years to head up MDP, a small hoist and winch gear manufacturer in the north of Italy.
PM’s USA dealers are Cranes & Equipment in Illinois, Morse in Pennsylvania, and VRM in California.
Discussions are continuing between PM and IMT over what PM cranes, if any, IMT will continue to offer customers in the USA.
