There were many stories to emerge during Conexpo 2002 in Las Vegas, USA last month. Some of them, of course, are simply not true – or at least not yet true. Others are too scurrilous to print. But of the bona fide stories, one quite obviously stands out above all others. On the evening of Monday 18 March Manitowoc had approximately 400 invited guests for a dinner at the Bellagio Hotel. Rumours were rife but hardly anyone knew for sure that just three hours earlier Manitowoc had agreed to buy Grove Worldwide for $270m. It was left to CEO Terry Growcock to tell the invited guests that the deal had been done. His audience waited for him to introduce his newest colleague Grove CEO Jeff Bust, a former president of Manitowoc Cranes. It was not to be. Instead Growcock said simply how ‘truly excited’ he was, though he did not particularly sound it. In fact it took a few days before anyone from either company began to sound like they were genuinely enthusiastic about the creation of what is arguably number one and certainly one of the top three crane companies worldwide. By the end of the week, however, respective Grove and Manitowoc opposite numbers were drinking together and swapping baseball hats. One suspects that it may have been Manitowoc’s Potain contingent at the show that were first to realise how exciting and positive the Grove deal could be. Certain Grove people found themselves only able to refer to the deal as ‘the merger’ rather than ‘the takeover’ or ‘the rescue’.
Generally, however, across the industry (apart from competitors) the deal was warmly welcomed. Brock Settlemier of Bigge thought the price was an absolute bargain. Former Grove chairman Bob Stift, who now happens to be a non-executive director of Manitowoc, said that putting the two companies together was ‘something that I wanted to see from my first days at Grove in 1992. It just couldn’t be accomplished until now. This combination creates what should become the finest lifting equipment company in existence.’
Manitowoc Crane Group president Rob Giebel has been known to say ‘you can never time acquisitions’. The perfect timing of this one proves that he is wrong.
If Manitowoc provided the story of the show, it was Link-Belt that gave us – arguably – the star of the show. In a straw poll of neutrals, Link-Belt’s hydrostatic drive, three-axle rough terrain RTC-80100 gained a majority of the votes though some expressed doubts about whetehr customers would warm to the hydrostatic drive concept. Among those giving it a vote of confidence, however, was Jack Swan of All Erection who has so far ordered two units.
Unlikely to sell quite so well, but still attracting enquiries, was the ATC-3130. This is a 130 US ton rated all terrain produced by Tadano Faun (which calls it the ATF 100-5). Link-Belt has put this machine through testing to meet SAE standards.
Also prominent on Link-Belt’s stand was the LS-308H II duty cycle crawler, rated at 110 US ton (100t), in the colours of Anderson Drilling.
The busiest crane stand was probably Grove’s, and not just because everyone wanted to find out what was going to happen next. (No one knew the answer to that question, of course. It was far too early. However, answers most often given – more in hope than in enlightenment – were: ‘No, our cranes are not going to be red’ and ‘We’re keeping National’.) Other good reasons to flock to the Grove stand included the 550 US ton all terrain GMK 7550 (450t and called GMK 7450 elsewhere) and the 130 US ton rough terrain RT 9130E. Both cranes get the All Erection vote. The big AT was in All colours and Swan reports that the three RT 9130Es that he has in the field are performing really well.
Also shown by Grove were the RT 600E, RT 700E, GMK 5120B, GMK 5240, TMS 700E and TMS 875C, plus three National boom trucks. It was quite a display, and the only crane on Grove’s stand that was not new since Conexpo 1999 was the TMS 875C truck crane and even that has been upgraded from the TMS 870 since then.
From the National range was the Series 1400, a telescopic crane rated at 33 US ton, to fill a perceived gap between the 30 ton 1300 and 26 ton 1500. A 1400H version is also offered, with the crane mounted behind the cab rather than at the rear of the truck.
National also had the new N205/34 HFJ60, which it claims is the only American-built articulating crane with proportional extension rather than section by section. While there are no plans to export this to Europe, National plans to take on the growing number of European knuckle-boom manufacturers on the US market with this model.
Some of the larger European knuckle boom manufacturers such as Hiab and Fassi stayed away, but Palfinger had a central spot to show off its massive PK 120000, displayed on a Kenworth truck which was sold to a customer in British Columbia, Canada. According to Palfinger, this unit was the largest knuckle-boom crane ever displayed in a major North American exhibition. Palfinger says that the show generated ‘hundreds of new sales leads’.
Fratelli Ferrari of Italy and its North American partner Venturo also had a good show, selling cranes off its stand right from the first morning.
Top knuckle boom technology was being promoted by IMT which has begun marketing the Electronic Vehicle Stability (EVS) of its Danish partner HMF. This technology, which monitors and adjusts stability to allow the operator to make maximum safe use of a crane’s capacity, will become available to IMT customers later in the year.
One of the few other European knuckle boom cranes that was on show was an Atlas on the stand of new parent Terex. The only problem for Terex was that the sheer volume and range of equipment on its stand lessened the impact of its cranes, although its Japanese built Terex American crawlers were rarely without people climbing over them. Terex has enjoyed good success with these IHI crawlers. Judging by the prices being quoted, it can also expect to sell healthy numbers of the T790 which was on show. This truck crane is rated at 90 US ton (81t), has a maximum boom length of 138ft (42.1m), a maximum tip height of 202ft (61.6m), and sells for something like 20% less than the competition.
Another stand with so much equipment it was hard to know what to focus on was Liebherr. There was room for just the one all terrain, the new LTM 1250 with 72m boom. However, the LR 1350/1 and LR 1280 crawler cranes were plenty big enough to pull the crowds. The 1350 is rated at 350t and comes from the Ehingen factory while the 1280 (280t) is built at Nenzing in Austria.
The LR 1350/1 at the show, the first to be produced, was on its way to Cranes Inc which will use the crane to place 10,000 tons of structural steel at the New Bronx Criminal Courthouse in New York.
Liebherr also gave a North American debut to its TT self-erecting tower cranes which have a telescopic jib as well as a telescopic tower. The 32TT, the largest of the three model range, was exhibited.
Another self-erector being put through its paces several times a day (proving that it could be ready for work in under eight minutes) was the truck-mounted Manitowoc S282. This crane can lift a maximum of 2.2 US ton (2t) and lifts 1.3 US ton (1.17t) at its maximum reach of 82ft (25m). Pre-show publicity indicated that this machine was going to be called the GMAT. The new name is part of a redefinition of the product as a boom truck rather than a tower crane in a bid to prevent owners having to overman it in unionised regions. Tower cranes are subject to more stringent union regulations than boom trucks and even electric tower cranes have to have an ‘oiler’.
The S282 represents one of the biggest gambles at the show, but Manitowoc is confident that North American customers will respond. A couple of dozen orders have been taken already, though most of these are from distributors, including the recently signed up SI Equipment Services of Concord, California.
Manitowoc was also giving a first public showing to its 555 crawler crane, rated at 150 US ton (136t). This crane has already made its site debut at Lambeau Field, the stadium of the Green Bay Packers American football team, which Laramie is extending.
Manitowoc also showed a Potain MDT 302 flat top tower cranes branded in Manitowoc red. The biggest ‘red Potain’ in North America so far is an MD 650 owned by All Erection that is at work on a hospital construction project in Milwaukee alongside an MD 412. The MD 650 has an 80m jib (262ft). These cranes use the new K800 and K850 mast systems which Manitowoc is now manufacturing in Wisconsin.
Demag (the company, now famously, that Manitowoc did not buy) sold a 1,250t capacity CC 8800 crawler to Equipos del Centro in Venezuela during the show and reports strong interest in its city class cranes, AC 350 SSL and the new AC 200-1.
The Japanese manufacturers were represented by Kobelco and Tadano whose stands did not seem to be attracting the traffic they deserved. Kobelco’s CK 1000 and CK 2000 crawler cranes (rated at 100 and 200 US ton respectively) looked as good as any crawler on show, while Tadano’s first North American truck cranes look like winners. The new line was represented at the show by the 80 US ton rated TT-800 XXL. Among the other cranes on Tadano’s stand was the ATF 100-5, which a hundred yards away could be seen in Link-Belt colours as the ATC-3130. As far as one could tell, this was the only crane at the show to be seen with two different badges.
Several companies occupying smaller exhibit areas nevertheless managed to display an impressive array of equipment, particularly Riggers (with its new Quad 4 Lifter), Lift Systems (Power Tower, Minijack, and TF4560 telescopic forklift) and Broderson (full range of carrydecks).
Among the big buyers at the show was AmQuip, which purchased two 600t Liebherr LR 1600 crawler cranes for its newly established heavylift division. It also bought an HS 855 crawler and two LTM 1250 all terrains from Liebherr. From Grove it bought a GMK 5120B. ‘We felt that all of the manufacturers offered excellent products, but we chose the Liebherr because of the capacity and ability to work on crawlers or out-riggers,’ said AmQuip general manager Frank Bardanaro.
There were 110,00 registered visitors, according to the organisers, which is actually a decline from 1999’s 124,000 visitors even though this time around there was the additional attraction of the International Fluid Power Exhibition running concurrently. However, regardless of the actual numbers, the crane exhibitors seemed to agree that the attendance on their stands at Conexpo was not just good considering the downturn in the economy, but the best they had ever known. And despite the apparent lack of overseas visitors the ‘quality’ of the visitors was good, meaning that there was a high proportion of potential customers. Overall, therefore, it was a resoundingly successful week.
