Vast numbers of tower cranes are crowding Spain’s skylines in a construction boom that has gathered pace for the last two years and is expected to continue for at least two more.
Spain is the world’s number one market for tower cranes, according to Liebherr Industrias Metalicas marketing manager Tobias Böhler. He quotes VDMA figures of 1,394 new tower cranes sold in Spain in 1998. That figure is incomplete because it does not include all manufacturers, particularly producers of small self-erecting models. Numbers are further boosted by used cranes imported from central Europe, he says.
Government infrastructure projects and state-aided housing programmes are primary reasons for the boom. Funds allocated by departments such as the Ministerio Formento total Pta 950bn ($6bn) for 1999, up 11.4% on last year. This year 867km of new roads are to be added to the high speed highway network, more than the last two years combined. New high speed rail projects will connect Madrid with Valladolid, Zaragoza and Albacete-Murcia. In addition to all that, about half a million new homes are being built in Spain this year to meet the housing needs of those born in the baby boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Figures from Liebherr put construction industry growth last year at 5.7% with an increase to 6.5% projected for 1999. Growth in the economy as a whole is expected to be about half that figure this year at 3.5%.
Particularly good regions for construction cranes at the moment are tourist resorts in coastal areas, particularly the south and west, and the islands. Comansa delivered 30 tower cranes to Mallorca last month for hotel and holiday home construction. Urban areas such as Barcelona and Madrid are also very busy. In Madrid county, an area with a population of 5m, a two-year-old law prohibiting cranes over 10 years old has obvious benefits for the industry.
Another factor contributing to increased crane sales is that during the last recession crane stock had aged significantly through lack of replacement. Now that replacement is happening, employment is also up. Liebherr in Pamplona had 346 employees in May this year, compared to 152 back in 1991.
Comansa is producing two to three cranes a day at its Pamplona plant in an attempt to keep up with demand, according to Ralf Hagestedt, one of Comansa’s regional sales managers. This translates into an annual total of between 550 and 600 units. Around 90% of these each year have been sold in the home market for the last two years at least, says Hagestedt.
Just three models account for as much as 98% of Comansa’s sales. These are the NT40100, NT45100 and NT45120. Jib lengths are between 40m and 45m and tip loads from 1t to 1.2t, which is the most popular range for the Spanish market. Tower heights tend to be between about 30m and 40m, base mountings are fixed rather than travelling and almost nobody orders frequency controlled drives. Too expensive, the Spanish reckon.
Jaso claims market leadership, manufacturing 550 cranes a year for the Spanish market alone. Marketing manager Julen Berziartua expects that though construction will keep growing until 2002, the tower crane market will reach saturation next year.
Ibergruas, the Potain dealer for Spain, says that things haven’t been better for at least 10 years. It claims a market share of 30% to 40% for Potain cranes, implying sales of 350 to 400 units last year.
The most popular cranes are 40m and 45m jib models with 1t or 1.5t tip loads.
Potain’s MC 65A (45m jib, 1t tip load) accounted for 50% of Ibergruas’s sales. The MC 50A comes in second, with about 30% of Ibergruas’s sales, then the MC 85A with about 15%. These cranes have 40m jib, 1t tip load and 50m jib, 1.2t tip load respectively.
Figures from Liebherr Industrias Metalicas show that 48% of its Pamplona plant’s production of 545 units in the first half of this year went to the Spanish market. More than 50% of production, at 306 units, is the LC series crane with tower head. Liebherr has now raised its estimate of total 1999 production from 964 units to more than 1,000. Its most popular size in Spain is the 60tm-rated 63 LC.
Top slewers are preferred to self-erecting models because the majority of housing projects are apartment blocks in urban areas and construction of single-family housing is just beginning, Liebherr’s Böhler says. There is virtually no demand for luffing jib cranes.
Ibergruas’ Salgado Couso estimates the annual market for self-erecting cranes to be about 200 units. Competition for his Potain cranes in this sector comes from the various Italian manufacturers as well as Liebherr and Comansa.
In the first half of this year Liebherr’s Pamplona plant produced 191 units of its K series and 48 units of its SE self-erecting cranes, although most were exported.
