Comments Archive
Archive of comments from the global cranes industryComments By Date
October 2020
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Turn of events
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.
September 2020
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The Bigger Picture
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.
August 2020
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Build, build, build
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.
July 2020
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Changing habits
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.
June 2020
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Mix and Match
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.
May 2020
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Hard times
When Charles Dickens published his novel Hard Times as a serial in his weekly publication Household Words in 1854, the world was definitely different.
April 2020
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The essence of essential
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.
March 2020
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Competing on technique, not size
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.
February 2020
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Bigger and Bigger
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.
January 2020
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Game on
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.
December 2019
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The world looking in
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.
November 2019
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Wind of change
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.
October 2019
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A wide ranging issue
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.
September 2019
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Checking research on checklists
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.
July 2019
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Experience and innovation
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.
June 2019
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Mind the gap
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...
May 2019
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Fitting capacity to requirements
On any crane contract, the first and most vital commercial step is to make sure that the crane you bring to the job site matches the clients' lifting requirements: big enough to work safely, but not so big that you're wasting capacity (and, therefore, investment that you can't earn back with profitable rental rates).
April 2019
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Digging deep for opportunity
In this issue, two of our lead features look at the impact of infrastructure projects on demand for lifting equipment.
March 2019
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Demag answers and questions
In our lead news items this month, I've tried to find answers for at least a few of the questions readers may have about Tadano's planned acquisition of Demag from Terex. As you'd expect for a deal at this stage, I wasn't able to get a lot more detail.
February 2019
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Choosing a look, choosing names
Sometimes, how a thing is presented, how it looks or how we name it, shapes how we think of it, even if the thing itself is unchanged. Think, for example, of how 'premium' and 'basic' products are packaged at the supermarket: glossy packaging, metallic embossing, and an emphasis on ingredients for 'premium' goods; primary colours, simple design, and a focus on price and value for 'basic' goods. Often, the gap between the two is not as great as...