THE MILLENNIUM SAIE exhibition in Bologna, Italy, drew a crowd of more than 170,00 visitors and boasted 1,900 exhibitors.

Among the exhibitors, Italian manufacturer Effer showed its 2100/4S STR truck mounted loader crane, which was originally built as a one-off order for a customer. The 200tm machine has a 35m boom and fly jib and six stabilisers. Export manager Patrick Borgatti explained that Effer may go into full production of the crane after the interest it generated at SAIE.

Terex-owned Gru Comedil announced plans for the installation of a technical team in London in 2001 to provide service and support for its cranes in the UK. Comedil’s UK distributor Select has ordered three CTT 331 cranes to work on the Treasury building in London as well as three CT 250s plus four CT 321s for the Canary Wharf development. Comedil expects to deliver at least 40 new cranes to the UK in 2001 and sales director Mariano Moritsch claims that Select is the leading importer of tower cranes to the UK, with sales of £6m ($8.4m) so far this year. Elsewhere in the world, Comedil has sold 50 cranes in Portugal over the last 18 months, and 15 self-erectors across Ireland.

Comedil exhibited its City range of modular flat tops. The CTT 161-8 from this range was erected in six hours.

Tadano Faun’s Italian agent Salvatore Pennisi, who trades as Mister Gru, showed a Crevo 200 EXC city crane for the first time in Italy and said that he had sold two units at the show.

Telehandler manufacturer Merlo has expanded its range of front loaders with the launch of the P4016K. The new model has computer controlled functions and a ‘black box’ data recorder that can store 5,000 operations completed by the machine.

As with all major exhibitions, there were plenty of industry rumours circulating the show ground. One of these was that Terex was about to take over Compact Truck, whose mobile cranes Terex begins manufacturing under licence in 2001. Terex Lifting vice president Steve Filipov and Compact Truck managing director Alex Lutz both denied this. The two companies are, however, engaged in joint procurement of components for CT cranes to get better prices, said Lutz.