Hydrauliska Industri AB (Hiab) is a Swedish manufacturer of loader cranes, demountable container handlers, forestry cranes, knuckle boom cranes, truck-mounted

forklift A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

s and tail lifts. The company is owned by the Cargotec Corporation.

History

The name, Hiab, comes from the commonly used abbreviation of Hydrauliska Industri AB, a company founded in

Hudiksvall Hudiksvall () is a cities of Sweden, city and the seat of Hudiksvall Municipality, in Hälsingland, Gävleborg County, Sweden with 16,792 inhabitants as of 2024. Hudiksvall is also known as Glada Hudik (), a term that originated in the 19th centur ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

1944 by Eric Sundin, a ski manufacturer who saw a way to utilize a truck's engine to power loader-cranes through the use of

hydraulics Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

. Hiab invented the world's first hydraulic truck-mounted crane in 1947. On the other side of the

Bothnian Sea The Bothnian Sea (; ) links the Bothnian Bay (also called the Bay of Bothnia) with the Baltic Sea, Baltic proper. Kvarken is situated between the two. Together, the Bothnian Sea and Bay make up a larger geographical entity, the Gulf of Bothnia, ...

in Raisio,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

about the same time, three brothers, Mikko, Mauno and Martti Terho developed a mechanical cable-operated interchangeable platform-loader (Cablelift) that utilised the truck's front winch, with which it was possible to use a variety of platform bodies. In 1949 they started Multilift to manufacture their innovative load handling equipment. The roots of today's Hiab Company lie in a series of acquisitions from 1977 onwards, when Partek Corporation embarked on a comprehensive diversification and internationalisation strategy. Founded in 1898, Partek Corporation was one of the oldest industrial companies in Finland, originally producing

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and later a versatile range of materials for the construction industry. In 1977 Partek decided to expand into the engineering industry and thereby decrease its dependence on domestic construction when it first bought named Multilift. Eight years later, in 1985, the company bought Hiab with its forestry-crane subsidiary Jonsered. In 1988 they bought Loglift - as the name implies, also a forestry crane manufacturer. During the late 1990s Partek strategically restructured itself into an engineering company, fully divesting its construction-materials activity and making several acquisitions in the load-handling equipment business. The load-handling side of Partek expanded in 2000 with the acquisition of the Zeteco Group (including among others ZEPRO and WALTCO tail lifts). During the same year the truck-mounted forklift business was acquired, bringing today's MOFFETT and PRINCETON PIGGY BACK brands into the company. KONE Corporation acquired Partek in 2002. In 2004 the load-handling functionality was renamed after its most valuable product brand, HIAB. On 1 June 2005 KONE Corporation demerged into new KONE and Cargotec Corporation (listed in Helsinki Stock Exchange).

Cargotec Cargotec Oyj (trading internationally as Cargotec Corporation) is a Finnish company that makes cargo handling machinery for ships, ports, terminals and local distribution. Cargotec was formed in June 2005 when Kone Corporation was split into t ...

consists of Hiab load-handling, Kalmar container-handling and MacGREGOR marine-cargo handling services.

References

{{Commons category, HIAB cranes Manufacturing companies of Finland Construction equipment manufacturers of Sweden Engineering companies of Finland Crane manufacturers Swedish brands Companies based in Malmö

History

See also

References