We are a different company today. We have become more diversified and as a result more stable,” says Dr. Heinrich Hiesinger, CEO of thyssenkrupp.

“However, we are not yet perceived everywhere as the high-performance industrial group we are and want to become even more. That’s why we decided to redevelop the brand,” adds communications chief Alexander Wilke. The new brand puts a stronger focus on customers. It communicates the company’s positioning as a diversified industrial group and its aspiration to work in an integrated way, leveraging internal synergies and creating added value for customers, employees and shareholders.

The new branding is based on a survey of more than 6,000 customers, employees, applicants, investors, works council members, public figures and consumers. The findings: thyssenkrupp scores highly on engineering. The company and its employees and products are seen as high-quality and reliable. The new brand identity builds on this image and at the same time puts an even stronger focus on customer requirements.

The new brand condenses what thyssenkrupp stands for in a logo, a slogan, and new colors. Wilke: “But these are only the visible elements of our brand. At its core is our brand promise – because it places the focus on customers and says how we want to advance them.”

Containerized exports fueled the growth, posting a 9 percent gain over October 2014. Import volumes declined slightly, signaling the end of the peak shipping season when retailers increase inventories ahead ofthe holiday shopping season.

Through the first 10 months of the year, imports rose 4 percent to 1,208,091 TEUs, and exports grew 9 percent to 1,102,194 TEUs. Domestic volumes to Alaska and Hawaii remained flat, up 1 percent to 748, 769 TEUs.

Auto imports also continued to post gains in October—up more than 6 percent year to date to 154,291 units—as the 2016 models began arriving. Meanwhile, year-to-date breakbulk cargo volumes and grain, log,petroleum and molasses exports continue to be impacted by a weaker exportmarket.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance is a marine cargo operating partnership of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

The number Eight (Ba in Chinese) has a similar pronunciation as ? (Fa, meaning wealth or fortune) and is popular in China for everything from house numbers to cellphone numbers, the Beijing Olympics in fact commenced at exactly 8 minutes past 8 o’clock on the eighth day of the eighth month in 2008.

The Lingang factory has certainly had good fortune since its opening in 2007. A large extension in 2010 doubled its production capacity and since then the reach stackers, empty container handlers and heavy forklift trucks assembled there are exported to customers across the globe. The factory now boasts about 100 employees and recently won safety award among five Business units in NEA.

“This is a wonderful moment for our team here in Lingang to reflect on the strategies and teamwork that have helped us produce consistent quality 888 times. I’d like to thank each and every person in the factory for their part in this milestone, and look forward to achieving the targets we have set ourselves for the future: Eight thousand, eight hundred and eighty eight here we come!” Says Niklas Ruud, General Manager, Lingang Factory, Business Unit Lift Trucks.

The lucky 888th machine is a SMV 4531 TB5 reach stacker destined for Accumulator International in Taiwan. Where the reach stacker will increase the current rental fleet capacity of the company.

Lars Fredin, Vice-President of Konecranes and Head of Business Unit Lift Trucks, concludes “Konecranes certainly feels lucky to have the capabilities and experience of the engineers and staff in Lingang. We are a global team, and for the factory to have reached this auspicious milestone is a great reflection of our company’s unity of purpose.”