site.btaIndustrial Plant in Plovdiv to Resume Manufacture of Eco-Friendly Forklifts

NW 10:58:01 10-02-2015
SN1057NW.105
105 ECONOMY - FORKLIFTS - EXPORT

Industrial Plant in Plovdiv
to Resume Manufacture
of Eco-Friendly Forklifts


Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, February 10 (BTA) - An industrial
plant in Plovdiv will resume the manufacture of eco-friendly
forklifts powered by natural gas. A batch of 62 such machines
will be exported to the Czech Republic and Poland this year, the
company said.

Five engineers are designing the new forklifts. The team leader,
Georgi Vulkov, who is also technical director of the plant,
said that 10 years ago the company made the first prototype
forklift powered by methane (the main ingredient in natural
gas), but cheap diesel fuel at that time meant that the new
technology had no chance. At present, natural gas is about half
the price of diesel fuel and LP gas, which is why demand for the
new product has risen in the EU, Vulkov said.

A forklift of the eco-friendly type can operate for a full work
shift without refuelling. Its lifting capacity can be between
2.5 and 5 tonnes. The plans include a "super machine" which can
lift loads of up to 12 tonnes, Vulkov said.

The idea to manufacture the new machines came from the Czech
office of the Bulgarian plant, which gave notice of increasing
demand for methane-powered forklifts.

This type of forklift costs as much as any other type, but the
buyer can obtain full return on their investment in just five or
six years, because the fuel is cheap, said the plant's
executive director Peter Petrov.

The eco-friendly forklift is little known in Bulgaria, because
most industrial plants do not have natural-gas stations of their
own. PK/VE

/СН/