To get a return on a 200t crane now takes ten times as long as it did 20 years ago. In 1977 Hewden Stuart paid £265,000 ($424,000) for the world’s first 200t telescopic crane, a Gottwald AMK 200, and according to director Ray Ledger the company never got less than £2,500 a day renting it out. Today a 200t telescopic crane costs in the region of £1.2m “and you can pick one up on any street corner for £900 to £1,000 a day”.

Says Ledger: “That is the crux of the problem. It’s not a happy time for the industry.” There’s still too much equipment coming into the market, he says, resulting in too many cranes for hire chasing too little work. “Is it any wonder when manufacturers are just throwing metal at companies that can’t afford it, on terms that are ludicrous?” The picture would be different, he suggests, if crane manufacturers demanded upfront cash payments. As it is, aggressive marketing by manufacturers, pushing cranes into fleets, has “knackered a good market”, contributing to the cut-throat bidding, and hitting residual values of fleets.

Ledger estimates that the entire UK mobile crane population, including those owned by end-users, is probably around 2,000. (Others reckon the real number is nearer 3,500.) “My own view is that in the UK there is an over capacity of 300 cranes,” he says.

Ledger also points to the March 2000 quarterly attitude survey of the Engineering Construction Industry Association, a key client base, showing orders declining, investment falling and profits shrinking.

The result is a definite slowing down in crane buying in the UK. Estimates suggest that about 150 mobile cranes were sold in 1999, compared with about 270 in 1998. This year the numbers may fall further, in spite of the fact that given the strength of the pound it has never been cheaper for a Brit to buy a German crane.

Two of the four major mobile crane rental companies, Hewden Crane Hire and Initial GWS, have put blocks on new spending, while a third, Ainscough, has significantly tightened its purse strings. Only Baldwins remains bullish about the market. “We see a very good market in the UK,” says sales director Grant Mitchell.

Hewden, having spent £8m on new machines in 1999 and taken two AC 300s from Mannesmann Dematic this year, plans no more purchases for the foreseeable future. “I think the responsible thing to do is to sit on our hands and see how the market shapes up,” says Ledger.

Hewden has scaled down its heavylift fleet. It used to have nine cranes over 300t in capacity but got rid of all but its LTM 1400 and AC 650 before bringing in the two new 300t Demags in February.

In April Hewden’s parent company reported its results for the year to 31 January 2000. Group turnover was up 6.5% to £256m but pretax profit fell 3.1% to £40.5m. Soon afterwards, chief executive Alistair Napier left the company.

Hewden’s fleet of 330 mobile cranes (the UK’s second largest) produced “disappointing results” last year, contributing to a fall in turnover in the lifting business from £63.1m to £60m and a fall in operating profits from £14.5m to £10.6m. The powered access division, Hewden Instant Access, which has 1,600 platforms, also suffered. The UK access market is still growing, but rates have fallen 50% in the past three years.

In contrast, Hewden Tower Cranes, which claims a 30% market share in the UK top slewing tower crane rental market, had a good year with 90% utilisation of its fleet of 150 cranes. General manager Paul Phillips predicts a downturn in the third quarter of this year, though, as various major property developments reach their conclusion and public works projects associated with the millennium tail off.

Initial GWS, which has the UK’s largest rental fleet, with 370 mobiles and 69 crawlers, has called a halt to its programme of renewal, ordering no new mobile cranes since August last year when a ‘for sale’ sign was put on its door by parent company Rentokil Initial. There appear to be few takers for a company with a strong reputation but a relatively old fleet (in spite of having bought 130 mobiles since 1996). The UK is not the most attractive business environment – hence Baldwins looks overseas for expansion – but GWS could have appeal for a Dutch company, for example, looking to offload machines which do not meet the stringent highway regulations there.

Initial GWS managing director Andrew Makepeace says that being up for sale has not yet had any negative impact on business “but as each month passes with no announcement, people are getting more unsettled”. What has emerged, however, is that the Initial Plant Services group of companies is not likely to be sold as a single unit. The US plant business BET USA was sold to Ashtead Group for £320m in April.

The only mobile cranes GWS is buying at the moment is a consignment of 20 used Liebherrs out of eastern Germany that are now being factory refurbished. These cranes are a mix of 50t and 70t ATs.

Ainscough spent heavily on new cranes in 1998 and 1999, updating and expanding its fleet. It took delivery of about 50 new cranes last year, but now a period of consolidation is called for. “Trading conditions are extremely difficult, there is over-capacity in the market and there is pressure on rates with some suicidal hire rates out there,” says director James Ainscough.

Ainscough’s fleet has been cut back from around 300 units to 250. Older cranes from acquired companies have been sold, and replaced by fewer, but bigger new models. Recent deliveries include an AC 300 and an AC 650 from Mannesmann Dematic. (Like Hewden’s, Ainscough’s AC 650 is badged as AC 2000, reflecting its 2,000tm maximum load moment rather than its 650t lifting capacity.) Ainscough is also taking delivery of an AC 100 this month after it has been exhibited at the UK’s Site Equipment Demonstration (SED). The result of this renewal is that the average age of Ainscough’s cranes is now just three years.

Baldwins has been procuring new equipment as energetically as ever. A second Liebherr LTM 11000D (Baldwins’ name for the superlift version of the LTM 1800) arrived at the back end of 1999. In the past 12 months Baldwins has also taken delivery of three LTM 1500s (500t), an LTM 1300 (300t), six LTM 1160/2s (160t) and 10 units each of the LTM 1080/1, 1060/2 and 1040/1 (80t, 60t and 40t respectively). From Grove, Baldwins took delivery in April of four GMK 5180s (180t) to add to the 10 GMK 3050s (50t) that it took last year. It has also increased to 10 its fleet of 25t Kato CR 250 city cranes.

Beyond the big four, there is just about enough fleet renewal to keep the manufacturers’ sales forces busy. Other crane purchases in the UK include:

• Morecambe-based A Jardine & Sons and J Thomas of Horsham have each taken a Terex PPM ATT 900, an 80t AT with 53m main boom.

• Aerial Crane Hire and County Lifting have each taken a 20t Tadano Crevo city crane.

• Millennium Lifting of Dover has bought a 25t Kato truck crane.

• Beck & Pollitzer has bought its first Demag, an AC 80, to join its recently acquired Grove GMK 3050 and Kato CR 250.

• As well as the four bought by Baldwins, Grove GMK 5180s were also delivered last year to Terranova, Nationwide, Quigley, Longton and – in the Irish Republic – William O’Brien of Cork.

Crawlers in demand

Although the market for mobile cranes is generally less than ideal in the UK, crawler cranes are still much in demand. Even GWS has been investing in its crawler fleet. It is having its Manitowoc 4100s remanufactured at a rate of one or two a year and it has ordered five new crawlers from the UK manufacturer NCK, namely two of the new 90t Astra HC-90s (one of which has already been delivered) and three 65t Nova HC-65s.

Leading the UK crawler market, however, is Scotland’s Weldex. In April it bought the crane assets of Kvaerner Oil & Gas, which amounted to 30 cranes, including two Demag CC 2400s, two Manitowoc 7000s and various other Manitowocs and NCK models. This acquisition, which takes its fleet to 130 cranes, is Weldex’s fourth, following its purchase of the crawler fleets of Piper Plant, Hewden Stuart and Tarmac.

Weldex was particularly prominent at the Intermat show in Paris last month, with the new 450t Demag CC 2500 and two Manitowocs shown in its colours. The two Manitowocs were a 450t-rated 2250 with Maxer 2000 attachments and a 90t 222 with luffing jib.

Other recent purchases by Weldex include an Astra HC-90, the first of the two units that NCK has delivered so far.

Also expanding its crawler fleet is Birse Plant Hire (BPH). “We’re making good margins on crawler cranes at the moment,” says managing director David Goose. In April BPH sold its non-operated equipment division (industrial compressors, welding plant and the like) and its site services division to Ashtead Plant Hire, raising £1.65m to reinvest in crawlers and piling hammers. Goose says he is looking to add about five new machines to his existing fleet of 45 by the end of the year. He will be looking for 50t to 90t mid-range duty cycle machines and seems likely to opt either for a Japanese manufacturer – Kobelco, Hitachi, IHI – or for NCK. “I’m very impressed by NCK’s new 90 tonner. It’s a very well-engineered machine and its duties compare very favourably with other machines in its class,” he says.