What was new at Bauma China?

January 2009

A designer of a European crane manufacturer asked me how many innovations I had seen at Bauma China. His point was that although there were many new cranes on show, many of the ones he saw were, in his eyes, reminiscent of existing designs on the market in varying degrees, and so did not represent something new to the industry. He was criticising the show for its lack of industrial development.

I posed the thorny question of copying to a crane designer from one of the largest Chinese manufacturers. She replied, through a translator: "There is an old saying: 'You absorb the advantage of others for your own advantage.' Chinese cranes are not simply copies of Japanese and European cranes. Any features that appear copied are only in appearance and shape. From the beginning of the design [of a new crane], we do not copy the technology, but analyse it."

What is indisputable was that there were lots of cranes on show, from many different manufacturers. In addition, the stands of the big three–Zoomlion, XCMG and Sany–all had strength in depth of their range of cranes on show.

Manitowoc Cranes president and general manager Eric Etchart praised the amount and variety of cranes on show. "I know the engineering hours that it takes to launch a product. To see at the show the amount of new products not there two years ago...it is competition that we cannot ignore."

According to Manitowoc executives, there is one very important new development that was marked by Bauma China. With mobile and tower crane manufacturing in China, and tower crane manufacturing in India, Manitowoc could make a claim to be more Asian than big rivals Terex and Liebherr. And according to Asia-Pacific executive vice-president Gilles Martin, the region is where the company expects most growth in the coming decade.

Martin says that the show marks a turning point in the global crane market, when falling markets have reduced backlogs to a point where global companies can compete head-to-head with Chinese companies for the first time. "Especially in towers, we couldn't supply the volume market. So there were a lot of customers who said to competitors, 'If you can supply a crane, I will buy it, and if not, I need a crane.' That created opportunities. Now that availability is not an issue, now that the field is competing on even terms in delivery, let's see if the market share that the Chinese have managed to capture will be sustained, or increased." He says: "It is a new game, a new world, and the competitors in the crane world have renewed the challenge."

Etchart says that he is not so concerned about the threat of large crawler cranes and all terrain cranes exported by Chinese makers. Chinese all terrain and large crawlers are limited by component and steel procurement, so cannot be priced much below Japanese or European brands. Also, they are sensitive to resale value.

However, he admits that already Chinese manufacturers of tower cranes and small crawler cranes have taken first blood, in domestic and regional markets, at least. "In tower cranes I do see a big threat; just look how many luffers there are here, which are targeted at the export market. With small-size crawlers, Chinese manufacturers have already dented our market share. This is a reality."