USA

Cemetery excavators use heavy equipment to dig through frozen soil
For the crew of Sycamore Monuments, it is never too cold to dig. In the long winter months, cemetery excavators continue to work every day. Cemetery excavator Jim Rose said they keep busy digging about three graves per week at DeKalb's Fairview Park Cemetery, one of the 12 cemeteries they maintain.

Monday morning, Rose estimated there was about a foot of frost permeating the black earth beneath his feet in Fairview Park Cemetery.

“This time of year is an ordeal because the frost is just so thick,” Rose said.
The last couple of weeks of changing weather patterns have added to the toughness of the soil, he said.

Manitowoc Co. joining Chinese crane manufacturer
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Manitowoc Co. announced toiday it has formed a joint venture with a Chinese company to produce mobile and truck-mounted hydraulic cranes.

The announcement was made at ConExpo 2008. The joint venture with TaiAn Dongyue Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd. will be located in TaiAn City, Shandong Province, approximately 300 miles south of Beijing.

“This transaction solidifies Manitowoc’s position in one of the world’s fastest-growing construction markets,” said Eric Etchart, president of Manitowoc’s Crane segment, in a news release.

He said the deal furthers its mission of bringing manufacturing and service closer to the customer. “With growing demand for infrastructure and industrial expansion, this joint venture is an excellent addition to our manufacturing base and our global reach,” Etchart said.

Caterpillar expects boost in sales, revenues from emerging markets
Caterpillar Inc, which stands to benefit from 'infrastructure growth opportunities in the world's emerging market' as well as upgrade work in North America and Europe, expects to see sales and revenues approaching $60 billion by 2010, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens told analysts at a major trade show late today.

The presentation marks the first time Caterpillar, which had 2007 revenues of $45 billion, has ever publicly projected annual sales of $60 billion.

Job market still stiff, but companies planning to hire
The outlook was bleakest in the construction industry, where 28 percent of companies anticipate growth and 13 percent expect job cuts.

Those numbers are down from the year-earlier quarter, when 36 percent expected to hire and 7 percent planned to downsize. They're up from the current quarter, in which just 17 percent of companies expected to hire from January to March, but the first quarter is typically a slower period for the construction industry.

CANADA

Record construction, record number of hits on gas lines
Excavators and other heavy machinery hit natural gas pipelines a record number of times in B.C. last year, a period in which billions of dollars worth of construction was going on.

In a release to be issued tomorrow, Terasen Gas reports 1,739 of those potentially explosive incidents in 2007. That's more than 100 more than the 1,624 in 2006 and the 1,639 in 2005.

INDIA

BHEL, NTPC mulling heavy equipment JV: report
Public sector majors BHEL and NTPC are reportedly in talks for setting up a joint venture (JV) for manufacturing heavy equipment like boilers and turbines for all types of power projects, including the super-critical ones.

In September 2007, the two companies had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form a JV for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects only. But, the scope of the agreement can be expanded to main plant equipment.