Comments Archive

Rising to the challenge
12 February 2021 Over the past year, there has been a lot of discussion about the challenges the industry is facing because of the pandemic. Operations had to be stopped or altered, while sales revenues have been affected.

By the thousands
11 January 2021 At the end of 2020, Mammoet launched the 6,000t-capacity SK6,000, which the company says will allow for the construction of bigger FSPO and FLNG modules onshore. This was the second launch of a machine with a capacity exceeding 1,000t within a period of few weeks.

A year in review
04 December 2020 This year we have been constantly bombarded with negative news about coronavirus; but looking back over our news coverage of 2020, I realised that it was a year with numerous exciting product launches and updates.

Decision time
06 November 2020 At times of economic downturn, companies often have to make big and hard decisions to maintain profitability or for their sustainability.

Turn of events
07 October 2020 The pandemic has definitely altered the way that people interact on a professional level. The shaking of hands and the exchange of business cards may be deemed risky under these strange circumstances.

The Bigger Picture
09 September 2020 As some of you may have noticed, since the beginning of the pandemic we have been very careful as to how we cover its effects on our industry. Our aim was to let some time pass before covering this subject in-depth, so that we could provide a more accurate analysis on the impact.

Build, build, build
13 August 2020 The US-headquartered Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) conducted a survey of member company executives on the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on equipment manufacturers.

Changing habits
10 July 2020 Different types of tower cranes are popular in different markets, which is why the major manufacturers in this segment have more than one type in their portfolio.

Mix and Match
10 June 2020 Factory closures, reductions in motor traffic, significant falls in the number of flights were among the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which contributed to a drop in the global demand for oil.

Hard times
14 May 2020 When Charles Dickens published his novel Hard Times as a serial in his weekly publication Household Words in 1854, the world was definitely different.

The essence of essential
06 April 2020 I started writing this comment on the second day of Coronavirus lockdown in Britain. Our government last week advised us to stay home, but that didn't take: this being Britain, last Friday many pubs were full, and on Sunday, when we celebrate Mothers' Day, many thought it a good idea to take their aging mums out to catch a potentially fatal disease at flower markets and parks.

Competing on technique, not size
16 March 2020 For more than a decade, the world’s heavy lift specialists have been competing as to who is going to manufacture the biggest crane with the largest lifting capacity.

Bigger and Bigger
07 February 2020 In this issue we cover Barnhart’s acquisition of Viant Crane, a move that will further enhance Barnhart’s presence in the Midwest, where Barnhart already operates a number of branches. This is the second such announcement by the company in less than a year, as it previously entered into an agreement under which it will own the majority of assets of Burkhalter Rigging of Columbus, Mississippi.

Game on
10 January 2020 The Middle East is inevitably associated with oil production, as this industry has been fuelling the region’s economy for decades. Fluctuations in the price of the commodity have caused intense economic cycles and at times negatively affected construction activities.

The world looking in
09 December 2019 At the time of my visit to Japan, rugby fans where filling up the Rugby World Cup stadiums around the country, while Emperor Naruhito officially proclaimed his enthronement before dignitaries from about 190 countries. The spotlight is still on Japan, as the country is preparing to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Wind of change
07 November 2019 On the occasion of the UN Global Climate Action Summit and the Global Climate Strikes, renewable energy became a hot discussion topic among government leaders as well as citizens of countries around the world.

A wide ranging issue
03 October 2019 This month, we cover the industry about as widely as we could: at one end of the capacity scale, our regular correspondent Stuart Anderson takes a deep dive into the small telecrawler sector; on the other, feature writer Julian Champkin, visits the Hinkley Point nuclear power plant, where he saw one of the world's biggest cranes at work.

Checking research on checklists
17 September 2019 Checklists have become a routine part of modern life. In simple form, as to-do lists and shopping lists, they help us all keep track of the overlapping and numerous tasks of our day.

Experience and innovation
17 July 2019 One of the things that makes the crane industry so interesting to report on, is the level of innovation coming out of a relatively small and tightly-knit industry. Unlike other sectors I've covered, it has been relatively easy to meet a broad range of suppliers and users; and, where some industries progress only slowly, just in the decade or so I've been covering the sector, I've seen new crane types come into regular use.

Mind the gap
20 June 2019 For travellers on London's underground railway, the warning to 'Mind the gap' quickly becomes part of the background of daily life: the city's old, curved, station platforms don't fit neatly with tube carriages, meaning there's often a substantial hop from train to platform. That phrase, painted on every platform edge and spoken over the tannoy at every stop, seeks to prevent us hurling ourselves absentmindedly under the train. By and large it...