The Philippines was once again in the limelight as the most promising market at the recently-concluded Hiab Asia Pacific Conference. Representing the Philippines was Centro Manufacturing Corporation, Hiab’s authorized distributor in the Philippines.

The participants took note of the growth of the Philippine economy in 2016 at 6.8 percent which, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, was the country’s fastest growth in the last three years. In fact, it was the fastest GDP growth in Asia last year, even higher than China’s 6.7 percent and Vietnam’s 6.2 percent. The main drivers of the economy were manufacturing, trade, real estate, renting and business activities, which are all industries served by Hiab products.

Hiab is based in Sweden and is the world’s leading provider of on-road load handling equipment such as Hiab loader cranes, whether truck-mounted or not, Moffett truck-mounted forklifts, Multilift hook lifts for de-mountable bins and Zepro, Waltco and Del tail lifts. It is part of Cargotec Corporation.


It recently gathered all its distributors from all over the Asia Pacific region to discuss the latest trends in the crane industry, new products and technologies and its new marketing strategies in this digital age. Delegates of Hiab dealers from India, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines actively exchanged ideas and opinions about the region.

Centro Senior Sales Manager Vic Belisario says that given the very optimistic outlook of the Philippine economy driven by markets that Hiab products serve, Centro is very excited about the booming market. “Centro aims to take advantage of this by intensifying its marketing and sales efforts since the Philippines is going to embark on a massive infrastructure development program. This program is aimed at supporting the expected growth in the top priority areas under the Comprehensive National Industry Strategy: manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics, services, agribusiness and tourism. All these industries have needs for products that Hiab offers”.

He concludes that Hiab is very popular in the Philippines because of its high-quality cranes, booms, and other load handling equipment which are used by top logistics, utilities, manufacturing, mining and construction companies in the Philippines.