A key supplier to the steel stockholding and handling industry, Street Crane Company is celebrating its 75th year of innovation in crane technology. The company’s association with steel stockholding and handling grew in the 1970s and 1980s with installations for Walker Steel and British Steel Distribution (BSD), making it amongst the biggest UK customers for coil and section handling cranes.

One of India’s leading manufacturers of chassis and hydroformed components for vehicles – ALF Engineering – has placed an order for a fully automated press hardening line from AP&T. This is AP&T's first substantial order in India, the fourth largest new car market.

Caption: The first new outer skin parts for the ID. Vehicles from the new large press at the Zwickau vehicle plant.

Robot orders in the first quarter of 2021 were up 20% over the same period in 2020, with substantial increases in purchases coming from companies in metals (up 86%); life sciences/pharmaceutical/biomed (up 72%); food & consumer goods (up 32%) and other non-automotive industries (12%).

Image caption: Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director, VDW.

Mercedes-Benz and Siemens plan to cooperate on advancing digitalisation and automation in the automotive industry, supported by the State of Berlin. Mercedes-Benz AG aims to digitise its production processes.