?Crane hire in the Maghreb

North Africa has traditionally been a destination for used cranes that are surplus to requirements elsewhere. While many African clients may be satisfied with ageing truck cranes, much of the demand for cranes in North Africa comes from major international contractors working on oil, gas and energy related projects. Algeria and Libya are major oil producers and Egypt is ranked as the world’s eighth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

International contractors on such projects expect the same quality of machinery and manpower that they demand anywhere else in the world. On their projects, the cranes should be young and modern. The manpower, while not necessarily young and modern, needs to be trained and competent. The crane business in North Africa, therefore, is gradually developing.

In terms of new crane sales, “the only interesting markets in this region are Algeria and Egypt,” says Wolfgang Beringer, marketing manager of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen. Over the last five years, demand from Algeria has been stable at around 30 or 40 all terrain cranes a year, with Liebherr claiming more than 50% of this market. Only very few new truck cranes or rough terrain cranes are sold, Beringer says.

In Egypt, the market is approximately 60 mobile cranes a year, says Hany Rashad of local Tadano distributor Ragab Export & Import Co. The majority of these are all terrains but there is also demand for RTs, with up to 20 units sold.

Libya is also an RT market, again with perhaps 20 units a year. Elsewhere, in Morocco and Tunisia for example, demand is about five units a year.

When it comes to used mobile cranes across the region, purchases have been inhibited, as they have the world over, by shortages and consequent high prices.

In Algeria it was not even permitted to import used cranes until 2006, quite probably because Algeria is home to the continent’s only mobile crane manufacturer. Algeria’s National Company for Public Works Equipments (ENMTP) was established in 1983 and produces a diverse range of construction machinery under licence from manufacturers such as O&K and Ingersoll Rand. Its mobile crane and excavator designs come from Liebherr licences.

The mobile crane and excavator factory is in Constantine (1), producing three crane models: the 1025, 1030 and 1040, at 25t, 30t and 40t capacity respectively. ENMTP also produces Potain-design tower cranes at a factory in Bejaia (2), with five models ranging from the GMR 14/04 with a 14m jib up to the GAT 55/15 with a 55m jib.

Most crane buyers in North Africa are state-owned enterprises, the military or international contractors. There are also some local contractors and engineering companies with cranes. Aresco, for example, part of the Arab-Swiss ASEC engineering group in Egypt, has cranes up to 800t capacity.

Perhaps because of the presence of a local crane manufacturer, Algeria is the only country in the region with much of a crane rental industry, populated mostly by owner-operators with older machines serving the limited requirements of the general construction industry.

To serve the oil industry requires a grander approach, however. Red Med is a privately-owned Algerian company that offers a range of services supplying anything from labour to aircraft to the oil industry in Hassi Messaoud (3). Cranes form part of its operations, with a fleet of 14 Liebherr ATs up to 100t capacity and three more on order. Phil Holdroyd, a British expat, manages the cranes and is in charge of operator training. Previously an operator with UK rental companies such as Bronzeshield, he joined Red Med in 2001 when it bought its first 100t crane and needed an operator. The crane was purchased specifically for a Halliburton project, which specified that it wanted an English-speaking operator. “I only came here for three months,” Holdroyd says, seven years on.

Holdroyd says that Red Med now operates to British Standards, LOLER (the UK’s Lifting Operations & Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998) and the standards set down by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP).

“All the major oil companies except Exxon are in Algeria, so safety is taken seriously,” he says. “Our clients include British Gas, Shell, BP, Statoil, Repsol, Halliburton and Schlumberger. There are not enough cranes. There are more drilling rigs than we can keep happy. It takes six cranes to move a rig so we need to cross-hire [from other companies],” Holdroyd says.

He continues: “A lot has changed in the past seven years. When I first came here there were not many cranes; just one-man-bands with old stuff.” The oil companies have driven up standards, he says. “Now I’d say it has improved 500% in terms of the quality of the cranes. And quantity - there are more cranes too.”

Algerian transport company Trans Baouchi also has a depot in Hassi Messaoud (3) as well as one in Algiers (14). It has a crane fleet of four modern Liebherr all terrains in the 40t and 45t classes, a 15-year-old ENMTP 40 tonner and a 24-year-old Hyco 30 tonner.

Some of the larger European crane rental houses have also moved into North Africa, notably Sarens of Belgium, Mediaco of France and Eurogruas of Spain. Mostly, the business model for these companies is supplying cranes on long term lease to major projects.

Sarens has permanent operations in Algeria and Egypt and also undertakes projects in Morocco and Libya. In Algeria, Sarens does have a taxi crane business offering telescopic cranes for hire on a day basis but this business is quite small, says director Hendrik Sarens. As elsewhere across most of North Africa, there is not so much call for cranes from general construction and house building because of the cost. Most of Sarens telescopic cranes in Algeria are on longer-term lease to industrial projects.

It also has lattice boom cranes here on major contracts. Its biggest crane permanently stationed in Algeria is a Terex Demag CC 2000 crawler, although bigger cranes are shipped in for projects as they are needed. It currently has 25 cranes in its Algerian fleet, including both telescopic and lattice boom machines.

Currently, Sarens has approximately 50 employees in Algeria. It used to have more than 100 there four years ago, but the number is set to rise again, Hendrik Sarens says. “In Algeria, business was rather weaker last year but we are now focusing on a lot of new investments. We have some big orders and enquiries. For the past two years there have been a lot of investments prepared that are only now coming to realisation,” he says.

For example, the clear-up at the port of Skikda (4), which was rocked by a massive explosion at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in January 2004, is now coming to an end, paving the way for a new plant to be built.

Demand for cranes in Algeria comes primarily from the oil and gas business, although there is also increasing investment in power plants and also cement and fertiliser plants. There is also a government plan to upgrade the nation’s transport infrastructure, with plans for a metro railway in Algiers and a new six-lane highway from east to west.

Sarens’ larger lattice boom cranes are operated by Europeans, but otherwise local operators and riggers are used. In the first instance they are brought to Sarens’ training centre in Belgium, and then receive ongoing training in Algeria.

In Egypt Sarens undertakes only project work, with lattice boom cranes. There is no taxi rental service here. Last year Sarens had a new CC 6800 crawler on a project in Egypt for four months. Currently Sarens has six lattice boom crawler cranes in Egypt, including a pair of Liebherrs erecting 80 turbines on a wind farm project for DSD Ferrometalco in Zafarana (5), by the Red Sea. An LR 1160, on site since June 2007, has recently been joined by an LR 1280. The project is a part of a government strategy to build 750MW of wind power capacity over the next five years.

Mediaco International probably owns more cranes in North Africa than any other company, with approximately 150 units permanently stationed there. It entered Morocco and Algeria in 2000 and Mauritania in 2006. This year it has expanded further, opening operations in Tunisia and Senegal, looking to further develop 2007's EUR50m turnover.

Nicholas Mayet, general manager of Mediaco International, says: “We have offices and depots in each of these countries. In Morocco we have locations in Casablanca (7), Tangier (6) and Fez (8), with more than 600 people. In Algeria we have locations in Hassi Messaoud (3), Arzew (9) and Skikda (4) with 400 people.”

In Morocco, where the company operates as Mediaco Maroc, it has 70 cranes, with the largest being a pair of 400t class Liebherr LTM 1400 all terrains. Mostly these are telescopic cranes with an average age of 10 years, shipped out of Mediaco’s home operations in France. Current projects in Morocco include a refinery extension in Mohammedia (10), 20km north of Casablanca, where Mediaco has had 25 telescopic cranes up to 400t capacity on site since April 2007.

In Algeria Mediaco has 50 cranes, again mostly telescopic, although the largest is a brand new Liebherr LR 1280 crawler (280t). Because the customer base is mostly the oil companies, newer cranes are demanded with all the latest safety features. The average of Mediaco’s fleet in Algeria, therefore, is just three years old, Mayet says.

In Mauritania Mediaco has a further 10 cranes, up to 200t capacity, and the new operations in Tunisia and Senegal also each took delivery of 10 cranes this summer. Mediaco started in Tunisia in July on a British Gas project in Sfax (11), working with Abnormal Load Engineering (ALE) of the UK.

While most of Mediaco’s work is typically long term projects like this one, Mayet says that the European taxi-type daily rental business is developing in Morocco, to the extent that 20% of Mediaco’s demand there is taxi crane work. Mayet says that Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who acceded in 1999 with a modernising agenda, has done much to promote development of the country, including major infrastructure development in ports and highways. On the back of this, Mediaco Maroc has seen its business grow an average of 30% a year over the past eight years.

Development of the business was boosted in 2006 by an injection of capital secured by floating 20% of Mediaco Maroc on the Casablanca bourse. Mayet says that the stock market listing makes it easier to finance equipment, which generally in Africa is much harder than in Europe.

Mediaco’s aim is to have each subsidiary operated and managed by local people rather than French ex-pats. It has set up training centres in Algeria and Morocco for crane supervisors and operators. Mayet says that clients like Total, SNC Lavalin and Saipem expect the same quality and safety standards in North Africa as they do in France or elsewhere. Even with established training programmes, reaching quality levels seen in France takes time, he says. “We need eight years to see the beginning of result, but we still have a lot of work. We progress every day,” he says.

Mediaco also has a dockside crane supply business, through the January 2007 acquisition of OCIC by Mediaco’s Moroccan holding company, Afrique Levage. Since its establishment in the 1950s, OCIC had supplied 72 Kranbau rail-mounted cranes to Moroccan ports, accounting for 80% of the rail-mounted total. Mediaco has subsequently taken on the Morocco dealership of Liebherr mobile harbour cranes.

The third European rental company with a strong presence in North Africa is Eurogruas. It entered Morocco three years ago by acquiring a small local rental company and established Eurogrues Maroc in June 2007. It now has three branches in Morocco (7), in Casablanca, Tetuan (12) and Agadir (13). Across these three branches it has 30 telescopic cranes, says Eurogruas chairman Javier Sato, with the largest being a 700t-capacity Terex-Demag AC 700.

Sato says that the work comes from a variety of sectors, including civil engineering, wind power and industrial projects, and from both local and international clients. Although the growth in demand is slow, he says, there are firm plans to expand into neighbouring countries. Algeria is an early candidate for a new Eurogruas branch.

Sato says that there are differences between Morocco and Spain, when it comes to doing business. “Some differences are the finances of the investments, and the rules concerning safety and quality. Another important difference is that in Morocco there are customs duties for importing machinery,” he says.

However, Mediaco’s Nicholas Mayet thinks that the crane rental business across the whole region will gradually become more like the European model. “The more we have cranes available and in good condition, the more the need for cranes will develop,” he says.