LIFT CONSTRUCTION SURVEY 2025
more efficient production for a number of years,” says Johns. Doppelmayr’s new 160,000-square-foot Salt Lake City head- quarters will open later this year. It will house expanded domestic production as well as bring production from Austria, mainly the big D-Line conical towers for now. Just a few months after Salt Lake opens, Doppelmayr plans to debut a new Canadian base in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec, replacing an older building. Practical limits to onshoring. Despite these investments, North America will always be an outpost of the global rope- way industry. Rowan says SunKid likely wouldn’t bring production to the United States. The U.S. and Canada accounted for 32 of SunKid’s roughly 150 lifts world- wide in 2025. “SunKid wants to purchase and produce everything in Europe with their vendors so they are getting the max- imum volume discount when they pur- chase x material,” he explains. Haul ropes are another example of when importing from Europe makes sense. “The rope manufacturers here in the U.S. can’t really supply what we need,” says Daly. “As the lifts got bigger, their ropes did not get bigger.” Skylling says despite using all Euro- pean ropes this year, he could use domes- tically produced ropes if necessary. “On fixed grips, even the larger ones, we can use a domestic, we just probably will see stretch and have to go back sometime that first winter and do a shortening.” INFLATION AND COMPETITION Tariffs are just one of the factors that combined to dramatically increase the cost of lifts over the past five years. “Go to the grocery store—inflation is every- where,” says Manley. The sharp rise in the price of steel, says Skylling, is the primary factor for the increasing cost of U.S.-made lifts.
“The biggest impact we have is the price gouging by U.S. steel and aluminum manufacturers because they now have less competition,” he says. “It’s not tar- iffs directly, but they’re raising prices a lot—because they can.” From 2020 to 2024, says Skylling, certain components increased in price 30 to 40 percent, aver- aging to “at least a 20-25 percent increase on the whole picture.” Labor costs. There is also the cost of labor, which ski areas know all too well. “A ski lift is actually mostly labor,” says Manley. Johns points to materials and labor as the two biggest factors impact- ing Doppelmayr USA’s prices. “Lifts are significant, long-term investments,” he adds. “Safety is critical when you are car- rying people and [lifts] have to function. We can’t scrimp on materials and the quality of what goes into them.” Exchange rates. Then there’s the weakening of the U.S. dollar in relation to the Euro, a decline of almost 12 per- cent in 2025 as of mid-December. “In the surface/carpet world, the exchange rate plays a fairly large role in the cost of things,” says Rowan. Competition. Daly, who started his career at Poma and now works for MND, points to one last factor: lack of compe- tition. “Twenty-five years ago, we went from four major detach manufacturers to two,” Daly says, noting in the early 2000s there was only enough business for two. “As the lift industry has ramped up, there are still only two competitors. Those two companies have dominated the market very smartly,” he says. “We see the need to have a third player in the market.” OUTLOOK How does business look for 2026? Rowan thinks it’s going to be lower than this year. “I don’t know how much
Credit: Skeetawk Ski Area
TOWS: ROPE, HANDLE, WIRE ROPE Star Lifts
3
TOTAL
3
CONVEYOR LIFTS MND
2
Team Service Carpets / Planet Movers 5 TOTAL 36
Star Lifts
29
LOADING CONVEYORS Chairkit
4 4
TOTAL
SIX-YEAR CHART OF CONVEYOR INSTALLATIONS
Above: The new Skeetawk (Alaska) MND conveyor lift nearing completion. Right: Nutt Hill, Wis., installed a new SunKid conveyor to serve its ski and tubing hill, which reopened this season after being shuttered for 10 years.
100
80
60
40
20
0
2020 2021
2022 2023 2024
2025
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