News

2020-04-25

COVID-19 Update: Europe Slowly Resuming Production

April 21, 2020–After four weeks of lockdown, some European countries are slowly lifting restrictions, allowing industrial production and some commercial operations to restart, and restoring some freedoms to their citizens.  

Emiliano Marzoli
Emiliano Marzoli

In Italy, this week represents a key moment as some industries can resume production.  Agricultural and Lawn&Garden OEMs can reopen their factories, although respecting strict regulations that will reduce factory capacity.  The same is happening in Spain starting April 13, with all segments resuming work, but with differences across regions.  Moreover, many OEMs were not able to meet the new working regulations and could not resume production.

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DataPoint: 2020 Production Estimate, NA Skid Steer Loaders

105,900 units is the estimate by Power Systems Research of the number of Skid Steer Loaders to be produced in North America (Canada and the United States) in 2020.

This information comes from industry interviews and from two proprietary databases maintained by Power Systems Research: EnginLink™ , which provides information on engines, and OE Link™, a database of equipment manufacturers.

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2020-04-24

Outdoor Recreation Group Creates COVID-19 Guide

The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a coalition of outdoor recreation trade associations and organizations, has published on their web site (www.recreationalroundtable .org) a guide for their members on the Outdoor Recreation Industry and the Coronavirus. Included on the site are Federal, State and Industry Resources, ORR’s letter to the President, Governors and Federal Government on the impact and recommendations to the Coronavirus crisis.

The site also has suggestions on what small businesses and policy makers can do to support efforts to combat the virus. The link for the informational site at ORR is: https://recreationroundtable.org/coronavirus/

PSR can support members of many of these organizations with focused and accurate forecasts of global diesel and gas engine production.  PSR


Michael Aistrup is a Senior Analyst

2020-04-14

STA Uses 3D Printers To Produce Face Shields for Health Care Workers

MENDOTA HEIGHTS, MN–Students at St. Thomas Academy High School in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, are using 3D printers in their Innovation Center to produce face shields for first responders and medical personnel who are battling the coronavirus.

The school has garnered some national exposure for the manufacturing work it has done with its 3D printers, including time on an ABC News broadcast and a nice article in the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press newspaper.

Power Systems Research is a co-founder of the Innovation Center that’s part of the company’s effort to support STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs at local high schools.

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2020-04-08

Coronavirus Has Major Impact on Global Production of Off-Highway Equipment and Medium & Heavy-Duty Vehicles

Download Your PDF Copy of the Presentation

ST. PAUL, MN–A team of international analysts from Power Systems Research (PSR) analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on the global production of Off-Highway Equipment and MH-Duty Vehicles in several regions today.

The team examined the impact of the coronavirus in North America, Europe, Asia, India, and South America for the remainder of 2020 and into Q1 2021.  Download your copy of the presentation here.

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2020-04-04

Unprecedented Times Call for Extraordinary Measures

Download our special report CORONAVIRUS, Impact on the global production for engines and powered equipment. Available April 15, 2020.

Joe Zirnhelt
Joe Zirnhelt

Over the first quarter of 2020 the concern over the coronavirus has grown each week.  Since first hearing the news out of China and the virus’ spread to South Korea, we have been able to observe the effects on supply chains and production.  

Time is of the essence

Although news and concern increased since that time, the week of March 10 and the classification of the coronavirus as a pandemic by the World Health Organization dramatically shifted many measures into action across the globe.

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2020-04-02

Is COVID-19 a Natural Disaster?

In late March, about halfway through the United States’ first round of social distancing, Generac CEO Aaron Jagdfeld spoke with Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith about whether Generac was seeing a spike in demand from COVID-19.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

Smith noted that the power generation segment tends to do better during and after a natural disaster, and wanted to know the answer to a question that has also been on our minds at Power Systems Research: “Is COVID-19 a Natural Disaster?”

Like many of the other questions surrounding COVID-19, like “Is the United States heading into a recession?” or “How do we distribute scarce medical resources?” the answer isn’t clear cut.

Additionally, hotels and other buildings are being converted into temporary hospitals as states prepare for their regular ICUs to reach capacity. He states that those buildings might not have typically had back-up power, but now need to be quickly outfitted to meet regulations for critical care centers.

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2020-04-01

CONEXPO Batteries Are Coming. We Saw Lots of Them at CONEXPO and GIE+Expo

Recently I was at a dinner with visiting members of my family discussing the noble transition that many manufacturers are making from producing their typical goods to producing essential goods and equipment for the coronavirus fight.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

One that came up was Tesla’s transition to making ventilators, and one member of my family began to say that they wouldn’t want a Tesla ventilator if they were hospitalized, because it would probably catch fire and explode.

My fiance is in medicine rather than in our industry, so she took that to be a serious comment about the risk of ventilators sparking in an oxygen-rich environment. But it quickly became clear that this critic just has a deep and abiding skepticism of battery technology, because they repeatedly brought the conversation back to battery fires and cars exploding, despite there having been only 14 reported cases of Tesla vehicles catching fire between 2013 and 2019, with most of those happening after accidents.

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2020-03-30

Dealing With Coronavirus

At Power Systems Research our business is based on being informed: Globally, and in several important industry segments.

Even as the coronavirus affects markets and industries and companies worldwide, we’re continuing to work effectively for our clients. We’re adjusting our operations hourly to meet the changing needs caused by coronavirus. Our IT staff has adapted PSR systems so our analysts around the world can work at home and communicate easily and effectively with each other and with the home office.

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2020-03-23

Komatsu Launches SMARTCONSTRUCTION Retrofit Kit

This article appeared in the March 2020 issue of PowerTALK™ News

March 23, 2020–Komatsu has launched the SMARTCONSTRUCTION Retrofit kit, the add-on kit to offer ICT capabilities, such as 3D machine guidance and payload measurement, to conventional construction equipment in Japan in late April through LANDLOG Ltd.

Akihiro Komuro
Akihito Komuro

Conventional construction equipment with no ICT capabilities account for over 98% of all construction equipment working on construction sites in Japan. When the SMARTCONSTRUCTION Retrofit kit is added to conventional equipment, it will enable the equipment to use ICT functions, such as 3D machine guidance and payload measurement, about on par with ICT-intensive equipment.

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