EU may 'ban new cranes in 2019'

The party's leader, Nigel Farage, offers the political subtlety of a stereotypically loud-mouthed London cabbie, and our rabidly right wing press have been running the sort of scare-quoted headlines ironically demonstrated above.

But, in a very real sense, proposals currently for a new Stage V of European emission standards may mean that in 2019 crane manufacturers do have to withdraw up to two-thirds of crane models from sale in the region.

The reason is the hard line proposed for a so-called 'transition period'. Under previous changes to emissions standards for the region, crane builders, and other off-road vehicle manufacturers, were allowed to buy up engines that complied with the outgoing standard and then install and sell them over a couple of years.

This gave them time to identify suitable engines and other components, and redesign their cranes in order to sell them under the new standard. There is a degree of risk to this, as manufacturers have to accurately gauge how many engines they'll need.

But it is better than the current proposal. The EU has still to decide on the exact requirements of Stage V. The engine manufacturers say that whatever happens, they will be able to pick components off the shelf for new engines (which will be so clean that they literally suck pollutants out of the surrounding air). But crane manufacturers are rightly sceptical of whether this will be possible. Even if it is, they will, at the very earliest, only know what engines they can use at some point in 2016. The new standard is planned to come into affect in 2019.

The FEM, the body representing European lifting equipment manufacturers, commissioned a study from the University of Munich, looking at the cost of this change, both in terms investment and engineering hours. The University was able to look at detailed figures that the companies could not share directly with their competitors.

They put the cost of the last set of emissions standards changes at €57m. They predict that the next set of changes will cost a further €66m and take up to four and a half years.

Without a longer, more flexible, transition period, manufacturers will not be able upgrade more than one third of models in their range.

That will mean many crane buyers have no way of replenishing their fleet with the latest, most environmentally-friendly cranes. The actual effect will be more older cranes on the roads and on construction sites, and more pollutants in the air.

This is an issue that the industry can have an influence on. If you want to buy a crane in Europe in 2019, you shoud read the short summary of the Study on the impact of new engine emissions requirements on mobile cranes on the FEM website, www.fem-eur.com, and share your thoughts with your MEP.

Will North Editor
wnorth@cranestodaymagazine.com