Manitou has begun shipping its first scissor lifts from its plant in Greater Noida, India. Vertikal’s Imogen Campion visited the facility to take a closer look.
An outside view of the facility in Greater Noida, India
The first scissor lift production line is dedicated to the 19ft SE0808 which has a 7.8 metre working height and 815mm overall width. The line is now operating close to full capacity estimated at 12 units a day, all of which are currently being shipped to France.
The 19ft SE0808's ready for shipping
In order to cope with the extra work, the facility has taken on 40 new employees which, it says, should be sufficient to handle production of the 19ft unit plus the other three models in the range. The 26ft/815mm wide 10 metre working height SE1008 is currently set to go online later this year, while the 32ft SE1212 - 12 metre working height/1.17 metre overall width - should be close behind. A 40ft model - the SE 1412 - is still at the planning stage and will most likely reach production during the first or second quarter of next year.
Platform capacities on the lifts are 230kg for the narrow models and 350kg on the wider units. All use the same AC direct electric wheel motor drive and feature integrated diagnostics with a colour display screen and 900mm roll out deck extension as standard.
While the new lifts are being manufactured in India there are no plans for them to be sold locally. Head of scissor lift production Rajat Tandon said: “This is mostly because the market is not yet here and is still evolving. The other products built in the plant include backhoe loaders which are now a staple product in India, while telehandlers are now growing in popularity, albeit at a steady pace.”
A good view of the scissor lift assembly line
“This year, the scissors will only be sold and marketed in Europe in order for them to be monitored. This is not a machine that we have manufactured before, we previously purchased models from another supplier" - (Genie compact RTs) he added. “The next phase of the plan is to launch them on the North American market early next year, while the third phase of the plan includes India, but it is still in the works.”
Scissors at the end of the assembly line
The facility also builds telehandlers tailored to the local market, ranging from the 7.6 metre MXT 840 to the 17 metre MXT 1740 - both of which have a 4,000kg lift capacity. They were designed to meet the requirements of what are essentially developing markets in terms of telehandler adoption and as such are tailored to the local working environments. Around 90 percent of the components are locally sourced while the design of the high boom units is considerably simpler and less sophisticated than the European built models. As a result, they carry a lower price tag, which was originally estimated to reach 20 percent when in full production. Around 25 percent of the telehandlers produced at the plant, currently stay in India while the rest are exported.
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