Fushun Yongmao tower cranes are made in the city of Fushun, in Liaoning Province, northwestern China, only about 150mi (240km) from the country’s western border with North Korea, and distributed in Europe by Brussels, Belgium-based firm Jin Long Europe, headed up by Jin Shan.
The Fushun Yongmao STT293 in London
The first unit to go into the UK was installed in October at London’s Imperial Wharf by the company’s first European distributor, the UK firm London Tower Cranes Hire & Sales. London Tower Cranes has ordered 11 units of the 200tm-class STT293 model. Jin Long has been in the UK since August.
Fushun Longmao boom view
The company is offering seven models of topless tower crane: two of the 50tm-class STT113.6, an 80tm class STT5515, and two each of the 200tm class STT293 and STT403. The cranes’ technical components come from standard suppliers: Telemechanique, Rothe Erde and Leroy Somer. Hetronic radio remote control is an option. Climbing frame, jacks and pumps are also supplied. No jib sections or components from one model can be fitted to other models.
The company has adapted to a market where demand far outstrips supply. As well as offering a low price, Jin Long also promises short delivery times, in this case, only eight weeks, direct from the Fushun Yongmao factory.
Europe’s first working unit was put up in Belgium in February 2005. Jin Long sells and erects the cranes in Belgium, according to Sean O’Sullivan, Jin Long Europe general manager.
“Jin Long Europe spent a long time researching the market, making sure the machinery was up to scratch and met CE, DIN and FEM standards,” O’Sullivan says. “The backup and service are probably the most important thing to them.” A team of Belgian engineers are available to maintain the cranes. In the UK, London Tower Cranes’ own electricians and fitters are tasked to maintain the cranes, if necessary.
Jin Long continues to search for European distributors.
Crawler cranes
Arnie Bogaard, Volker Stevin Materieel crane manager, taking delivery of a 50t capacity Fushun Excavator Corp crane from Cranebusiness owner Ronald van der Vlist
In August, Dutch crane dealer Cranebusiness delivered its first Chinese crawler crane to Dutch civil engineering contractor Volker Stevin Materieel. Since then, it has sold three more, to customers in Spain, Ireland and the UK, (Crane Business owner Ronald van der Vlist was reluctant to specify who).
The Fushun QUY50C crane
The crawlers are made by Chinese manufacturer Fushun Excavator Manufacturing Co, and CE-marked by Cranebusiness itself, in a process approved by Dutch certification body Aboma+Keboma.
Fushun Excavator produces about 350 units per year at its Fushun, China factory. The company makes cranes, excavators and pile-driving equipment, and the company’s C-range of cranes is designed for Europe. Some of these are still produced under licence from Hitachi Construction Machinery Co of Japan. The 35t, 50t, 180t, 250t and 280t capacity cranes are Hitachi designs. Newer models – the 70t, 90t, 160t and 350t – are developed internally, van der Vlist says. “They have a new, compact, design that is not copied.”
The Fushun QUY50C crane
”Hitachi makes a good machine, but at the moment it is very expensive, and delivery is eight months minimum. In the Chinese market, delivery is about two months,” says Arie Bogaard, crane manager for Volker Stevin Materieel.
Cranebusiness does seem to have a massive edge on crawler crane delivery times. It has bought 10 cranes for stock in capacities of 50t, 70t, 90t, 160t and 250t, and another nine for delivery in 2007. Other models available include a 35t, 180t and 350t model. If Cranebusiness does not have a model in stock, it can receive the crane in about a month if the crane is in stock at Fushun Excavator’s factory. If not, the lead time is about five to six weeks, according to van der Vlist.
Van der Vlist says he is not trying to compete solely on price. “I’m not going to say that they are 20% cheaper than their competitors. Iron is iron, whether it is Chinese or Japanese. People think that everything that comes from China is cheap. If it is sold cheaply, then the quality must be bad,” he says.
“I am not worried about competing with used cranes because the quality is good,” van der Vlist says. “It is well known that you can work with a crane for 30 years. It will be the same for Chinese brands.
Fushun manufactures the boom inserts, the carriage, everything but the winch, the hydraulics, and the engine, van der Vlist says. The cranes run on US Cummins engines and European Rexroth hydraulics.
“All the components are from European factories,” says Bogaard. “We can hold spare parts direct delivery in Holland. That is one of the reasons we chose Fushun.” Volker Stevin Materieel uses 50 cranes – 35 crawlers and 15 tower cranes – for its civil engineering work.
Fushun Excavator Corp’s new models are all based on one design, scaled up or down to suit larger capacities. That means that boom inserts from different models are incompatible. Fushun has just finished testing a 350t-capacity model, which would take 10 weeks to deliver to Europe, according to van der Vlist.
Up until the Fushun deal was signed, Cranebusiness mainly sold used equipment, but worldwide equipment shortages started to cause problems. “In Europe, over the last two years, there were 150 crawlers sold between 35t-350t,” van der Vlist asserts. “We sold 28 crawlers this year, and last year 44. It’s not that we can’t sell them, but we have problems to get them.”
Cranebusiness is Fushun’s export dealer, and it has an unofficial arrangement with an importer in the USA. Although van der Vlist says that the company is happy with the cranes, and the company, it was not his first choice.
“We tried with Hitachi-Sumitomo and Kobelco to become their dealer. We took several business trips to their factories, always they said not yes or no, but ‘we will let you know’, and they never answered,” van der Vlist says. They eventually decided to do it themselves. “We made contact with Fushun, and they said, “Yes, you can be an importer.” That’s the reason why we started with the Chinese. For the second-hand market, we will continue buying and selling Japanese, but these are not delivered from the factory.”
Cranebusiness employs a team of five engineers who do equipment maintenance call-outs in Europe. In addition, the company stocks consumable parts, such as windows and electroswitches.
The company also distributes the Logicrane, a 20t capacity telescopic crane with 25m reach that can be fitted to a four-axle truck or crawler base.
