With the Øresund crossing and Copenhagen’s 10km metro project both now completed, it is an urban development project on the north side of Copenhagen that is Scandianavia’s current biggest construction site. The area between the capital city and the Nordhavn (north harbour) area is being completely rejuvenated. Run down factories and warehouses are being replaced with luxury apartments and offices.

And a further four million square metres of land, some of it reclaimed, is also up for development. A new town, Ørestad, is being built on marshland close to the new airport on the island of Amager. The Danish Broadcasting Authority is building a new complex there and an extension of Copenhagen University is also planned as well as new offices for multinational companies. Daimler-Chrysler, Dell and Nokia are already in Denmark.

An independent Copenhagen guidebook claims these projects are to become the the third biggest city development in Europe after London’s Docklands and La Défense in Paris. It says that only Berlin rivals Copenhagen for the scale of live construction projects.

This is all good news for the crane industry, and for tower cranes in particular. Rental activity is good in Denmark at the moment says Niels Peter Sørensen, technical and sales manager at Danish tower crane manufacturer Krøll Cranes. Sales have not risen greatly on the back of all this activity but Krøll has sold a K-320 to a contractor in Jutland, the first tower crane sold to a contractor, as opposed to a rental house in Denmark, Sørensen says. He puts the total number of top slewing tower cranes in Denmark at about 50 units, and claims that about 50% are Krøll models.

Across the Øresund Strait in Sweden, Krøll dominated the tower crane market 15 years ago but it has now been taken over by Liebherr, and in Norway the market is basically Potain and Liebherr, Sørensen says. Germany used to be a big market for Krøll, but it lost out to Liebherr’s extensive dealer network. Eastern Europe (mostly Poland), the USA and South East Asia are now primary markets for Krøll, Sørensen says.

In terms of turnover and number of units sold, this year is as good as any of the last 10 years, Sørensen says, and most of the turnover comes from sales of non-standard cranes. Krøll is making about 15 cranes a year, roughly six of which are its best selling K-320 model. Also boosting the order book is the sale of a 5,000tm-rated K-5000 (News July01, p4), what Sørensen claims to be the world’s second largest tower crane, after the mighty K-10000, also built by Krøll.

Krøll used to make self-erecting cranes but it decided to stop producing them in the early 1980s because Italian manufacturers were able to offer them at half the price of a Krøll one. It also takes much longer to design a self-erecting crane than a conventional tower crane, which increases the time to market. Sørensen claims that Krøll can now produce a new top slewing tower crane design in as little as six months. In common with almost every other tower crane manufacturer, Krøll is now offering a range of flat top tower cranes.

Mobile cranes

Demag claims that the Scandinavian market for mobile cranes, which it expects to total 90 units this year, is very strong for 2001 – up 30% on 2000 to date. Finland is the strongest market at the moment, and in response to this a new salesman has been hired, increasing the number of staff responsible for Scandinavia to seven, says Demag marketing director Roland Schug. Sweden is ‘on a constant level, but difficult due to the decrease in value of the Swedish crown,’ he says, and that Denmark is cooling down.

Sales in the region are particularly good for large mobile cranes, to the extent that Schug claims a 100% market share for telescopics in the 300t-plus category. This year two AC 500-1s have been sold, one each into Sweden and Finland. Crawler crane sales include two CC 2500s to Finland and one to Denmark.

Liebherr reports falling demand for mobile cranes in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden where it puts its market share at just over 20%, although it describes Finland as stable, and claims a market share of 82%. Liebherr also claims to have 100% of what sales there are in Norway, while in Denmark it puts its market share at 25%.

A common option on Liebherr cranes, fitted to units from 90t capacity and upwards, is a telescopable operator cabin used for ship loading and unloading applications.

Grove reports interesting times in Scandinavia – not an easy time, but things are changing, according to the company. The region generally has been quiet in recent times, says Wayne Lawson, senior vice president of Grove Europe. This has given Grove the time to re-think its sales and support strategy. Lawson explains: ‘We have now implemented a far more pro-active and customer focused distribution organisation. We now have the right support structure in place, and with the latest GMKs and E Series RTs, we certainly have the right products.’

He continues: ‘Having enjoyed considerable success for some time in Denmark, with direct sales handled by Karl-Otto Kaae based in Sorring, this is a formula which we want to replicate elsewhere in the region.’

As a result Grove now has a dedicated sales agent, Kenneth Nilsson based in Malmö, who covers Sweden. Grove claims that with the support of locally-based service technicians, it has been winning significant new business.

‘Business in the Scandinavian markets has grown substantially in the past 12 months,’ claims Nilsson. He says that this reflects market acceptance of the latest all-terrain cranes from Grove’s Wilhelmshaven plant in Germany.

This has resulted in recent sales to Bärarelaget, Vätterbygdens Kran and Kranteamet, all members of the Swedish Crane Owners Association group which visited Shady Grove in November 2000. Grove has also delivered two new 80t GMK 4075s and a 100t GMK 5100 to the Swedish rental operation of Krane Elve, a company celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

In Finland long-standing Grove agent Kesko has also appointed a new dedicated crane sales manager; Seppo Turunen, who is experienced with Grove product. And in Norway a new direct sales and service partner organisation is to be announced. Grove believes that its ‘on the ground’ representation throughout the region is better than it has ever been before.

‘And the results are already beginning to show,’ Lawson says. ‘In Denmark we have delivered this year one each of our 100t, 200t and 300t GMK all-terrain cranes to the rental company Kraangarden, and in Finland, we have taken orders for the first of the new GMK 4075s which, with their excellent travel ability and fast set-up times are particularly suited for that market.’

Tadano Faun also says that there is a positive market trend in Finland, with its dealer Rotator OY ‘securing an excellent share’ there. In the other markets in the region for Tadano Faun, however, sales in the first half of the year were slower than last year, the company says. Sales are expected to pick up again once deliveries of new models begin. Foremost among these is the four-axle ATF 80-4, launched at Bauma this year.

Tampere-based Rotator recently celebrated its 30th anniversary as a Tadano Faun dealer. At the same time it received a further boost in the form of an order from rental house Kallioinen OY for three new Tadano Faun cranes: an ATF 30-2; an ATF 60-4; and an ATF 100-5. Kallioinen runs a rental fleet of 35 cranes and 450 aerial work platforms from 10 depots in Finland.

Tadano Faun Holland BV (TFH), headed by managing director S Ozawa, plays a crucial role in Scandinavia. TFH is not only responsible for sales in Scandinavia and Benelux, it is also in charge of after sales service and spare parts deliveries for Tadano and Faun cranes in northern Europe. Sales and service activities are channelled via a dealer network in the individual Scandinavian countries. Dealers are Akerbergs Maskiner in Denmark, Rotator in Finland, Knutsen Maskin in Norway and STT in Sweden.