During his time as Caterpillar’s demolition specialist, Gilles Ronnet achieved that rare accomplishment. He evolved from being a supplier TO the industry to become an integral part OF the industry.
As he begins his planned journey into a well-deserved retirement, DemolitionNews caught up with him in Italy for an exclusive interview.
In today’s show: As he begins the slow wind-down to a well-deserved retirement, we have an exclusive interview with Caterpillar’s demolition specialist, Gilles Ronnet; we’re up close with a new compact tracked loader prototype from Komatsu; you’ll be green with envy over the new Merlo dumper; and we’re talking tech with Hyundai.
PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: There has never been a better time to work in demolition and construction. So why are we failing to attract new entrants to the sector?
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Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.
And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!
Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.
DemolitionNews founder and editor Mark Anthony was the ONLY journalist to attend the European Demolition Association Study Tour of Italy; and he is fresh back with tales to tell and films to share.
The first official visit on the EDA Study Tour was to LCD Group in Milan; a scrap metal company with a fascinating sideline in fine art and furnishings made using salvaged materials.
During a previous visit to the Volvo Construction Equipment headquarters in Eskilstuna, Sweden, I visited the nearby Munktell Museum where they have a collection of vintage construction and agricultural equipment.
One machine I remember vividly was an early ADT, probably from the 1960s. I sat in it. The seat was basically a plank of wood, and the steering wheel looked like it had been salvaged from an early steam ship. Worse still, the engine was located right behind the operator’s head. If the fumes didn’t get you, the noise definitely would.
Mind you, at least it had a cab. Early dozers were open to the elements – If it was hot, the operator baked. If it rained, the operator was wet.
Even the early mini excavators that made landfall in the UK in the 1980s arrived with canopies. If the rain fell straight down, you were protected. If there was even a slight breeze, you were soaked.
Since the earliest days of mechanised plant and equipment, operators have sat behind the levers of machines that were often rudimentary, offering little more than a basic platform to get the job done.
But as the industry evolved, so too did the machines.
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In today’s show: John Deere unveils its latest loaders; 100 XCMG autonomous trucks go to work; Kemroc grinds out success; and in the first of our videos from the EDA Study Tour of Italy, we’re visiting a Milanese company that turns scrap int fine art and furnishings.
PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Will machine cabs become optional once more?
Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.
Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.
Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.
And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!
Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.
If someone asked you to step into a cage with a Bengal tiger, you’d say no. No hesitation. No debate. Just a flat-out refusal.
If someone told you to square up to a grizzly bear, you’d be gone. No shame, no second thoughts.
If someone suggested you lower yourself into a plague pit, ankle-deep in the bones and bile of past pandemics, you’d probably (and rightly) tell them to piss off.
And yet…
Every morning, you lace up your boots, put on your high-vis, and walk headfirst into dangers most people couldn’t even name, let alone face.
You climb scaffolds where one wrong step comes with no second chance.
You work near equipment that could crush a man flat without even slowing down.
You strip asbestos that can lodge in your lungs and shorten your life.
You breathe in dust, diesel, and fumes; not because you want to, but because the job needs doing, and someone’s got to do it.
And still, you show up.
Even when the world shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the streets were silent and shops were dark, you kept turning up. You were labelled “essential.” A key worker. While everyone else stayed home, fearful, you carried on. Not for applause. Just because it was expected… and because you always have.
But here’s the question no-one really asks you. What would actually stop you going to work?
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In today’s show: Komatsu unveils its next generation wheel loaders; Deere dozers drive performance; Bobcat goes large; and why PAT is not just a postman.
PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: What would make you stop work?
Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.
Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.
Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.
And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!
Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.
In the year 2000, a film starring Julia Roberts made an unlikely contaminant a household name. Erin Brockovich told the true story of a legal clerk who uncovered the poisoning of an entire California town’s water supply by a utility company using hexavalent chromium – Chromium VI. The film won plaudits and awards. The real company paid out hundreds of millions of dollars. And the public recoiled at the idea that a deadly, cancer-causing chemical could sit invisibly in drinking water for years, undisclosed and unaddressed.
And yet, a generation later, Chromium VI is still with us; this time not seeping into water, but swirling in the air on demolition sites across the globe. Its danger hasn’t changed. Only the form of exposure has.
And just like the residents of Hinkley, California, the workers breathing it in today often have no idea what’s happening to them.
In the mid-20th century, asbestos was praised as a wonder material; fireproof, durable, and seemingly essential. It wrapped our pipes, lined our buildings, and padded our ceilings. But it also lodged in lungs, turned healthy cells malignant, and left behind a legacy of death, grief and litigation that still reverberates through the construction and demolition industries.
We learned too late that what once protected us was quietly killing us.
A generation later, we may be repeating the same mistake. This time, the silent killer isn’t asbestos. It’s Hexavalent Chromium, also known as Chromium VI; a compound just as invisible, just as insidious, and seemingly just as easy to ignore.
Chromium VI is a toxic form of the metal chromium used widely in anti-corrosion paints, cement additives, stainless steel treatments, and industrial coatings. It’s found in countless structures built over the past century; bridges, ship hulls, refinery towers, and residential buildings alike. When these structures are demolished, Chromium VI can be released into the air as fine dust or toxic fumes, particularly when materials are cut, crushed, or pulverised.
To the naked eye, it looks like any other demolition dust. But when inhaled, it’s a potent carcinogen. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies Chromium VI as a Group 1 carcinogen. Exposure is linked to lung cancer, nasal and sinus cancers, kidney and liver damage, and severe skin conditions including ulceration and allergic dermatitis.
The worst part? As with asbestos exposure, it can take years, even decades, for symptoms to emerge, by which time the damage is often irreversible.
The parallels with asbestos are hard to ignore. Like asbestos, the dangers of Chromium VI were documented early. Scientific studies have warned of its toxicity since the 1950s. And as with asbestos, those early warnings were met with obfuscation, denial, and a general unwillingness to confront the cost of industrial progress.
In the case of asbestos, the human toll became undeniable by the 1980s, leading to widespread bans and regulation. But not before hundreds of thousands had already been exposed. Many workers who were simply doing their jobs found themselves diagnosed with mesothelioma, a disease with no cure and only one known cause: asbestos.
The warning signs are flashing again. But are we paying attention?
The longer we delay, the more people are needlessly exposed. And just like with asbestos, the full consequences may not appear until decades later; when lung cancers begin to cluster, when young workers age into patients, when families start asking why no one warned them.
By then, the cost will be measured in lives, lawsuits, and public health crises.
We are standing at the same crossroads we faced with asbestos. The science is clear. The risk is real. And the moral question is simple: Will we protect workers now, or mourn them later?
The story of asbestos is one of tragedy compounded by inaction. We ignored early warnings, suppressed evidence, and told ourselves it wasn’t urgent, until it was. Today, we find ourselves facing the same kind of danger. Chromium VI is already in the air, already in the dust, already in workers’ lungs.
We don’t have to wait for the funerals. We can break the cycle. Because history doesn’t just repeat itself. Sometimes, it offers a second chance.
This article was inspired by a lecture given by chromate expert Markus Sommer of Kavarmat during the European Demolition Association convention 2025 in Venice.
In today’s show: CASE demonstrates its autonomous wheel loader; Liebherr is in the pink; moving mountains with a big Shantui dozer; and six decades of backhoe loaders with JCB and JC Balls.
PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Did we learn nothing from the asbestos catastrophe?
Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.
Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.
Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.
And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!
Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.
When the curtain came down on the European Demolition Association Annual Convention 2025, it did so not just on a superb Study Tour and conference; it fell also upon not one but two industry eras.
The event marked the end of Stefano Panseri’s unifying EDA presidency; and it also marked the beginning of the end of the industry career of Caterpillar’s demolition specialist, Gilles Ronnet. Two very different men; two very different roles; and yet both can walk away safe in the knowledge that they each made a positive and lasting impact on the global demolition industry.
Stefano Panseri followed in the formidable footsteps of his father – Giuseppe – whose EDA presidency reshaped (and maybe saved) the European Demolition Association. Yet Stefano Panseri somehow emerged from the long shadow cast by his father to make the presidency his own.
In some ways, Stefano Panseri is a contradiction. He has a passion for demolition that only an Italian could possess; and yet his presidency was one of quiet, studied humility. His was a calming voice at a time when the industry – still trying to shake off the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns – craved stability. While some in the industry were determined to go it alone and adopt an “every man for himself” approach, Panseri brought people together.
As a demonstration of his unifying approach, the EDA Study Tour included a fact-finding mission to Panseri’s company, Despe. During that visit, Panseri threw open the doors to his company to competitors and delegates alike. No trade secrets; no restrictions to access; just a sharing of information in the hope of advancing the sector for the greater good.
But the EDA Study Tour also acted as a demonstration of Panseri’s humility. The tour was a prolonged farewell; a swan-song for his three-year presidency. As a result, each step along the way was an opportunity to give thanks for Panseri’s presidential contribution. Each time, he deflected any praise; bouncing it back to the various Study Tour hosts and to the delegates in attendance. Time and time again, he reminded those present that the success of his presidency was not his, but the industry’s. It was that statesman-like approach that will see his presidency go down as one of the most memorable in EDA history.
While Panseri was passing the chains of office to his successor, Caterpillar’s Gilles Ronnet was preparing to do likewise as he eases toward a well-deserved retirement.
During his time as Caterpillar’s demolition specialist, Ronnet achieved that rare accomplishment. He evolved from being a supplier TO the industry to become an integral part OF the industry.
For many years, he delivered his product knowledge and expertise in a quiet manner that was less salesmanship and more valuable insight and knowledge. Many equipment manufacturers – Caterpillar included – claim to be the partner of their customers. Gilles Ronnet embodied that notion. He wasn’t just the representative of a major equipment manufacturer, he was a source of knowledge, of wisdom, and of help and assistance.
I consider myself fortunate to have spent many hours in the company of both Stefano Panseri and Gilles Ronnet. In very different ways, both men were great company; always engaging and constantly welcoming. I’d like to think that I will have the opportunity to spend time with them again in the future.
Thankfully, both for me and – more importantly – for the industry, both Stefano Panseri and Gilles Ronnet pass their respective batons to individuals that share the same level of industry passion and commitment. Panseri’s EDA presidency passes to Patrick Frye of Cardem; Gilles Ronnet hands over to Jean-Christophe Etienne. Both men come to their new roles with considerable expertise and experience; and they will, I am sure, make an industry impact of their own in the years ahead.
But as Panseri and Ronnet step back, they both do so with their heads held high. And, most importantly, they do so leaving the industry demonstrably better than they found it.
