Demag on display

Not even the organisers expected quite so many people to come. Around 3,000 customers from all over the world visited Mannesmann Dematic’s Crane Day on 23 October, at its Wallerscheid plant in Germany. Not quite the whole industry, perhaps, but an impressively high proportion.

Most were also present the previous evening, enjoying dinner under a massive circus Big Top tent, entertained by circus acts, elephants and a laser show.

On the Crane Day itself, visitors were treated to their first sight of three new Demag cranes: the AC 100, a 100t-capacity all-terrain; the AC 500-1, a 500t AT; and the CC 2500, a 450t lattice boom crawler.

1999 was a busy year for Dematic’s mobile crane business. Having taken record orders in 1998, sales income for 1999 reached DM1bn (about $500m) for the first time, representing growth of 33% over the last two years. It will be difficult to repeat the sales success in 2000, given that orders in the first nine months of 1999 were down 7% on the previous year. But the three newest machines should certainly help.

The AC 100 is already assured success. With 145 orders received by November, it is leading the sales race in what will be the fastest growing AT market segment in the next couple of years. Further details of this crane can be found on page 36 of this issue.

AC 500-1

The eight-axle, 500t capacity Demag AC 500-1 succeeds one of Dematic’s most successful mobile cranes, the AC 1600. What is particularly attractive about this machine is that while it is 500t-rated with 160t of counterweight, it can travel on the road with no counterweight and compete with a 300t crane. A conventional 300t crane needs support trucks to transport the counterweight, while the AC 500-1 can simply drive to the jobsite on its own axles with 56m main boom, outriggers and hook block. Even with zero counterweight, the machine is capable of lifting 37t at 12m. With 160t of counterweight, it lifts 66t at 10m on fully extended main boom.

Demag mobiles are renowned for their compactness: the AC 500-1 has a carrier length of 17.1m and, in travel configuration, the machine is 3m wide and 4m high. When set up with full counterweight, tail swing stays within a 6.1m radius.

Attachments available include a luffing jib which can be mounted on the 56m main boom, giving an extra length of between 24m and 90m and a maximum combined boom-and-jib length of 146m.

CC 2500

The CC 2500 lattice-boom crawler crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 450t and fits between the CC 1800 and CC 2800 models.

It can lift 222t at 12m radius with 72m of boom in the SSL-configuration (heavy main boom with superlift). In the SWSL-configuration (main boom and luffing jib with superlift), it can lift 14t at 86m radius with 156m of boom.

The basic boom offers lengths from 24m to 72m. The SSL/LSL configuration (which combines heavy and light main boom sections with superlift) reaches 126m, and can be extended with a light fixed fly jib by another 36m, giving under-hook heights up to 160m.

The SWSL combination consists of up to 72m of main boom, Superlift and up to 84m of luffing jib. It offers up-and-over lifting ability and heavy lift capacity at large radii. Maximum under-hook-height is around 150m.

The SWSL combination can be converted into any other configuration, so when rigged this way, the crane’s boom system can be altered on the job site for different lifts, without transporting any additional components to the site.

With transportation being a key issue for larger cranes, the complete crane in the SH/LH combination (102m), including 170t of ballast, can be transported on only 10 low-bed trailers. Boom sections have been designed to slot inside each other when stored, to minimise transport volume.

Corporate front

These three cranes represent new product development at Mannesmann Dematic, but there is also momentous activity taking place at the corporate level. On 23 September parent company Mannesmann AG announced that its engineering and automotive divisions were being separated from its blossoming mobile telecommunications division to create two new Mannesmann corporations with their own identities and strategies.

Before this plan could be implemented, UK telecoms company Vodafone Airtouch launched a hostile takeover bid – practically unheard of in German industry. Whether this bid is successful or not, however, the outcome for the engineering and automotive side of Mannesmann is likely to be the same. Vodafone only wants Mannesmann’s telecoms interests and will float the rest of the business without interfering with it, just as the current management planned.

Regardless of who effects the separation, the new Engineering & Automotive business unit will have 88,300 employees and a turnover of DM23.6bn.

Mannesmann Dematic chairman Rüdiger Franke said, before the Vodafone bid, that splitting E&A away from telecoms would make it easier to obtain capital because the market would understand the company better. “Therefore innovation, rapid product development and the commitment to our customers will continue to be our top priorities,” he said.

Specifically in the mobile crane business, a key goal is to improve Dematic’s after-sales activities. These efforts are being concentrated further afield than just Germany. Part of the reason for moving the US subsidiary from Cleveland to Charleston, South Carolina was to strengthen the after-sales support. And a new subsidiary for mobile cranes in the Netherlands will improve customer service in the area, the company says.

There remains the possibility, though, of one or more trade sales as part of Mannesmann’s defence of the Vodafone bid. These are interesting times for Mannesmann Dematic Cranes.