Sarens expands in Asia

Belgian lifting giant Sarens has entered into a joint venture with Australian crane rental company Trans-Lift in Australia. The new venture, Sarens-Trans-Lift will offer contracting, crane hire, and special transport. Sarens has operations in about 20 countries around the world.

‘The Australian market looks to have a lot of potential with regards to the ongoing and coming investments in the windmill industry,’ sales and marketing manager Hendrik Sarens told Cranes Today. ‘Also Australian power plants and petrochemical plants are investing to bring their operational units to higher emissions standards,’ he said.

Big cranes included in the venture include the 800t Liebherr LTM1800 AT, 600t Terex-Demag CC2800 crawler, 550t Liebherr LG1550 lattice-boom truck crane and 250t Hitachi Sumitomo SCX2500 crawler.

Although Sarens is the majority shareholder, Hendrik Sarens says that the company has joint ownership because ‘it is important to keep a homeland presence in the company.’

Also, Sarens has renamed and reorganised its Thailand-based business, which recently won a large contract by Samsung at a Petroleum Authority of Thailand site. Following Sarens’ purchase of a majority of shares, the company, formerly known as SES – Sarens Equipment Services – is now called Sarens Asia. Sarens has provided the company with a 850t Gottwald AK680 lattice-boom truck crane, 300t Terex-Demag CC2000 crawler and 140t Liebherr LTM1140 AT as well as additional crane operators and support staff. Jungmu Suh is general manager, Anthony Banfield is technical-commercial manager and Eric van Mulders is financial controller.

• Sarens has also set up a wholly-owned subsidiary in Venezuela. The branch, intended to serve only the country, makes the second Sarens presence in South America, after the company’s affiliation with Tecmaco Integral in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The fleet consists of relatively small telescopic-boom wheeled mobiles.