Two of the biggest buyers of crawler cranes in Europe these days are Mammoet of the Netherlands and Weldex of the UK. Both took the opportunity to hold handover ceremonies at Bauma and place further orders. The name Marino, one of the USA’s heavylift specialists, was also in evidence.

Mammoet’s new orders were mostly for the rental company Holift, a joint venture between Mammoet (formerly Van Seumeren) and Hovago, also of the Netherlands. Holift has been in business for a few years with about half a dozen cranes or so, but Hovago managing director Doron Livnat says that it is now planning to raise its profile and is growing its fleet to about 30 cranes. While Mammoet’s business is focused primarily on the heavy lifting end of the business, Holift is targeting the niche of renting crawler cranes in the 250t to 600t class. The Holift business is managed by Mammoet.

Among cranes taken by Mammoet at Bauma was a 250t Kobelco CKE 2500 crawler. A second unit was also ordered at the show. Jan van Seumeren Sr, who is the main technical influencer in the purchasing decisions of Mammoet, says that not only has Kobelco got a good track record, the price was also a bit lower than the competition.

Frans van Seumeren, president of Mammoet, has traditionally invested most of his money with German manufacturers Demag and, more recently, Liebherr. So it was something of a surprise to see him buying three Manitowoc 999 units, also rated at 250t, in preference to more Kobelcos or the Liebherr LR 1250. (Demag’s range starts at the 300t CC 1800-1). For Manitowoc, however, it was a crucial deal. The 999, launched last year, was specifically designed to appeal to European customers, having such features as a 3m transport width. But having effectively closed its European sales operations and brought on board a new dealer, HD Cranes – a Dutch company that had previously been successful selling Kobelcos in Europe – the take-up of the 999 in Europe was slow, hampered particularly by exchange rates that were unfavourable to US exporters. In the end HD was unable to shift the five 999s it had undertaken to buy, and so it lost its 999 Navigator status and the Manitowoc dealership. Manitowoc’s distribution in Europe is an issue that is unlikely to be resolved until after the Potain acquisition has bedded in.

The Mammoet 999 deal was therefore conducted directly. Frans van Seumeren says he bought them because he got “a very good deal and there are parts of the world where they like Manitowocs because they are easy to operate and maintain”. The crane on Manitowoc’s stand at Bauma in Mammoet/Holift colours was the first 999 on mainland Europe (though Weldex took delivery of a 999 last November which is now at work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project in the UK. This crane was also purchased directly from Manitowoc rather than through HD).

After a handover ceremony of the 999 on the Manitowoc stand at Bauma it was straight to the Liebherr stand for van Seumeren and Livnat to announce the purchase of a pair of 400t LR 1400s for Holift. These cranes, the 50th and 51st units produced by Liebherr-Werk Ehingen, are being delivered with heavy duty booms, giving them a 450t maximum capacity, making them, in effect, LR 1450s. Holift already has five of these models in its fleet.

Another handover ceremony on the Liebherr stand featured Weldex which has bought 13 crawlers from Liebherr Nenzing in the last 12 months, including 843s, 853s (four units ordered in March) and LR 1140s and, now, the LR 1160. The LR 1160 is a 160t rated lift crane that replaces the 140t LR 1140. The capacity enhancement has been achieved basically by adding extra counterweight.

At this capacity Jan van Seumeren Sr prefers the 150t-rated Sennebogen 5500 HD and has ordered 10 of them for Mammoet, including the machine on show at Bauma. Mammoet’s order accounts for about half the 5500s sold to date.

Demag also appears to be enjoying success with its crawlers. At Bauma it took an order from Kiewit & Sons of the USA for four CC 2500s (450t/ 500 US ton) and two CC 2800s (600t/ 660 US ton). These machines will be delivered over the course of the next 12 months to Kiewit’s facility in Corpus Christie, Texas and will be used in the construction of oil platforms and other large projects.

Another active US customer is Marino, in whose colours Demag’s new 300t-rated CC1800-1 was displayed at Bauma. Marino has now ordered a second CC 8800, the 1,000t capacity crawler that has yet to be seen in iron. Marino placed its first CC 8800 order when the crane’s development was announced at Conexpo ’99.

Liebherr has so far taken six orders for its big new crawler on show at Bauma, the 600t LR 1600/1, which is produced at the Ehingen factory. Orders to date have come from: Sarens of Belgium; Riga-Eisele and KVN, both from Germany; Felbermayr of Austria; Pekkaniska of Finland; and B&G of the USA.

Like Demag, Liebherr is also shifting more and more cranes in the USA as both the big Germans seek to take a bite out of Manitowoc’s dominance of the North American market. Liebherr-Werk Nenzing has signed up new distributors in North America including: Galena Equipment (a subsidiary of Bigge Crane) to cover the North West and Rocky Mountain states; Coastline (owned by Bragg Crane) for California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico; and AmQuip for northeastern states from Maine to Virginia. AmQuip has in its own rental fleet an HS 853, an LR 1160 and an LR 1250.