Cranes Asia conference a success

Held on September 7-8, the event was hosted by Cranes Today magazine and included keynote presentations from local Singaporean officials.

Audience members included representatives from Kobelco, Zoomlion, Palfinger and Terex. The international crane rental firms Tat Hong, Sarens, ALE and Mammoet were also in attendance.

Anderson, who opened the session discussing the region, said Asian firms were expanding both fleet size and offerings, creating a huge crane market. “The fleet size in rental fleets has been growing in my estimation at 15% and the maximum size of crane has increased at a dramatic rate,” he said.

Rising demand has led Chinese crane manufacturers to increase production to more than double the rest of the world combined in some segments. They have diversified offerings and increased capacities in the last five years to a level on par with American and European counterparts, Anderson said.

Despite launches of improved cranes, second hand crane use is rising in Asia as the world market flounders, dipping again in June, and Asian import taxes loom.

As Asian markets have tended to rely on second hand cranes, the lack of safety regulations is becoming apparent. One safety expert observed, “There is no regional consensus.”

Focus of the safety discussion centered on Singapore as a regional hub and standard leader. Singapore’s WSH (Workplace Safety and Health Council) worked with industry to improve upon the 2001 code of practice that was ‘prescriptive’.

Er Mohd Ismadi, deputy director within the operator health and safety division, said WSH is introducing changes to regulations in September, with stronger enforcement of lifting plans, operator licensing, and regulatory coverage of all lifting workplaces, not just factories. Its goal is reducing its crane-related fatality rate from 4% to 1.8% of all national accidents in the workplace.

Ismadi showed a video of a crane load failure in Singapore and, in agreement with other safety presenters, said, “I’m not trying to sugar coat it. We have a lot of work to do”