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Bobcat

Doosan acquired Bobcat in the biggest overseas acquisition by a South Korean company

The Bobcat business, which employs nearly 5,700 people worldwide, collectively generated approximately $2.6 billion in revenues in 2006.

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United Nations

Recently Doosan's electric & diesel trucks have been put to use in Iraq, Afghanistan & Sri Lanka.

Doosan trucks have been used by the UN in regions as Beirut, Kosovo, Sudan & the Congo since 1998.

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Doosan Buys Warehouse Manufacturer

Doosan signals its intentions to move into the warehouse equipment market, with the purchase of German manufacturer, ATL.

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Macau Victory!

Stuart Easton, on the Doosan Honda 1000cc Fireblade, rode superbly to win the 2008 Macau Grand Prix

Congratulations Doosan Honda! Winners of the Macau Grand Prix!

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Down In The Timber Yard PDF Print E-mail
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Down In The Timber Yard
Page 2


A former Soviet airbase, an hour east of the Estonian capital of Tallinn, is possibly not the first place you'd go to when looking for a materials handling success story, but in the town of Tapa, that's precisely what you'll find.



The Tapa Mill is a 4.5 hectares site processing 63,000 cubic metres of wood a year, mostly grown in Russia for eventual sale to local Estonian businesses, as well as the Benelux countries, Germany and France.

It would be difficult to imagine a more dramatic change in fortunes for what was once one of the largest airbases in the Baltics and home to the Soviet Voyska-PVO, or Air Defence Corp.

The Soviets were quick to exploit the town's important rail links, constructing a huge crane for unloading weapons, a feature which attracted the mill's MD, Kalle Valdlo, to the site. "The rail link is important," says Kalle, "with 70 percent of our timber coming in from Russia. The crane too is very strong, but no-one gave much thought to operator comfort - or safety for that matter!"

Estonia itself was one of the first former Soviet republics to break away, with organised mass dissent in 1987, when the government demanded autonomy.

Until then, according to Tapa's mayor, Soviet pilots at the airbase, judged on how many hours they flew by how much fuel they used, dug pipes into the ground and poured the kerosene for their fighters down into the water table, making the water undrinkable. So much kerosene went into the drinking water in fact, that after the Russians pulled out, the town was able to pump up the groundwater and burn it in their power plant to heat the town.

You get the impression that a few transportation difficulties wouldn't stop the Estonians one bit.



 
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