Ready for global growth

LEEA is ready to increase its membership and spread best practice even further around the world, explains Ross Moloney, CEO of Lifting Equipment Engineers Association.

Having spent the last few years consolidating our membership, so that we currently have over 1000 full members, which are committed to carrying out best practice around the world in all sectors, LEEA has worked hard to get to the great position we find ourselves in today, where we can take the next step in our development. As we commence 2024 – the Association’s 80th year, we have set our sights on growing our membership to 5000, which will give us even greater influence when making the argument for safer operations.

With lifting going on all around us, in every sector and in every country, there is a huge potential for LEEA to not only increase our profile and expand our activities but also to grow membership in many global locations.

The Association is already represented strongly in several global regions. Our Regional Councils in Australia and the Middle East are engaging with local members, with Australia getting ready to host its second LiftEx Australia event in May this year. A South East Asia Regional Council will soon be joining the network and, as with the other councils, it will be able to work more closely with local industries and react more quickly to their requirements. It will also be well placed to attract new members in the region.

South East Asia and, of course, the Asia-Pacific powerhouse of China in particular, offer tremendous opportunities to recruit new members and to spread the message of LEEA’s gold standard to the region’s significant users of lifting equipment in sectors such as construction, manufacturing, renewables and offshore.

While China expects to see a slowdown in its growth rate in 2024 compared with 2023, this huge economy is the second-largest in the world. The country’s industrial sector makes up a third of its GDP, according to figures from Statista, with construction and transport and storage also among its top sectors. China also dominates the global renewable energy technology sector – a big user of lifting. The consultancy Wood Mackenzie forecasts that it will have more than 80% of the world’s solar manufacturing capacity through 2026, while Rystad Energy says the country exceeds 80% of manufacturing capacity in every stage of the solar panel supply chain. China’s share of electric vehicles sold in Europe had risen to 8 per cent and could reach 15% in 2025, according to the EU, while the Financial Times recently reported China’s BYD overtaking Tesla as the world’s best-selling brand of electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, S&P Global Market Intelligence suggests that over the next decade, the ASEAN region will continue to be one of the fastest-growing regions of the global economy and an increasingly important growth engine for the Asia-Pacific (APAC). The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam and has been one of the fastest growing regions in the world and is widely seen as a potential manufacturing hub and part of global supply chains.

The challenge to make lifting operations not only more efficient but also accident free, are international – from South East Asia, China, the Middle East and Australia to Europe, North and South America. That is why it is important to represent our members on a global basis. At the same time we want to ensure that people, wherever they are, recognise LEEA membership as globally applicable and globally beneficial, with many great reasons to join our Association, as a visit to leeaint.com will show.

The Technical Triage service, for example, allows members to put technical questions to our team, provides advice that is global best practice, and I would strongly encourage global members to use this service, which is further enhanced by the new Chatbot on leeaint.com and the LEEA Connect app.

As we build our global membership, we will, of course, be ensuring that every member is audited and fully aligned with upholding our gold standard. The technical audit itself is being developed to be sharper and better focused, and it is not a ‘one-off’ measure – there will be a risk-based approach underpinning short notice follow up visits. This high level compliance will continue to offer end users confidence when they look for the LEEA logo, which gives members a genuine competitive edge.

For more information on LEEA, visit leeaint.com.