Container production uneconomic, says GKN
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• We learned this week that GKN Sankey Ltd. has decided not to lay down a production line for ISO containers. This decision was taken after 12 months of research during which period the company built 10ft and 20ft module prototypes. Successful tests were carried out and the designs received Lloyds approval.
The company which produces cabs for BLMC and Rootes and chassis members
and wheels for light vans and cars, has a turnover of £24,000,000 a year. A spokes
man for GKN at Wellington told CM this week that market research indicated that
average orders were for quantities of five. He pointed out that although outside measurements were standard, customers wanted too many other variations for an economic production line.
Apparently many operators fail to lay down a clear specification of their requirements and this leads to unrealistic tendering. The larger companies like OCL and ACT, who place orders in the 500 region, lay down a clear specification but such orders are too infrequent (and open to too-wide competition) to make the production of containers attractive to GKN.