And how to take up the challenge? Stevedoring companies and steel-handling terminals want simplicity and reliability, says Kalmar. But in reality they are also looking for increasingly complex “added value”features.

“In general, steel handling is a very demanding environment and clearly loads are getting heavier and heavier,” says Dan Pettersson, Kalmar’s product line manager for heavy lift trucks. “Most mills are running more or less three shifts year-round. It is a process industry – you can’t stop, because then the mill would have to stop and that isn’t an option.

“So there are very high demands on loads and availability of machines.Once in the port, the same type of equipment is needed to handle the goods.Everything is just-in-time. Also, ports do not have that much space, so they can’t afford to get congested with material.You have to keep the material flow going – we are talking about a whole logistics chain of steel products.”

Mr Pettersson says Kalmar works with the customer and the manufacturers of the various types of attachments – clamp forks, magnets, etc. – to deliver the right solution.“You have to consider how do you handle what you want to handle in the most efficient way,” he says. “The best situation depends on the customer and the sort of set-up. But it is a tough environment you are working in,so you always have to have a robust solution.”

Other issues to be considered include the working surface – asphalt or concrete, pristine or with holes? “You must look at the surroundings where the forklift is driven and consider the needs – is it wide or narrow, etc.,”says Håkan Lennartsson,Kalmar’s product line manager for medium trucks.

“A poor surface can be compensated for.One simple solution is putting a restriction on speed, but that has to be OK with the customer. Or you have an extra reinforced mast and other parts.”

Kalmar has a large number of full maintenance contracts in place for its own machines and also those of its competitors and that is key for many customers, says Dan Pettersson.“Uptime is everything.”

Steel handling is one of Kalmar’s main focus areas. Last year the company launched its new generation of heavy-lift fork trucks aimed at this sector.The DCF 370, a 37 tonne forklift, is now considered the “base machine” for handling steel, where previously 32 tonnes was considered the base, says Mr Pettersson. “Weights are increasing and usage is increasing.We can of course go heavier than 37 tonnes.”

Kalmar has also further developed the electronic side of its machines, to deliver all sorts of operational data, including monitoring fuel consumption to help ensure “eco-driving”.

“This helps customers to monitor driving skills to use the machines most efficiently and keep fuel consumption down,” he says. “The operator is really controlling a very large portion of the fuel consumption in the way that he or she is driving.That is very important.”

Another option is a remote machine interface so that data can be transferred directly from the machines into the office – how many lifts the machine has done, the weights of the lifts, etc.“This helps to optimise flow in the terminal,” says Mr Pettersson.“It is important to analyse the data and propose actions based on this.We see that as a way we can support our customers better in the future and we believe that analysis will become much more important in the next few years.”

One customer even asked for the installation of an alcohol-testing system; the operator has to blow into the testing system before starting the machine. “At the same time as all this, customers want simple, reliable machines.So it is a balance for us manufacturers  to supply machines with the possibility to do these things, but still make it simple,”says Mr Pettersson.