Global crawlers

One could make a good case for arguing that the lattice boom crawler crane market is the most exciting segment of the industry today. Not so long ago these machines were regarded as cumbersome beasts that had no future with the growth of the rental business and just-in-time plant management. Road-running, quick-squirting, telescopic mobiles were the way forward, or so received wisdom had us believe. But over the past decade, the lattice boom crawler manufacturers have come back with large machines that can be mobilised with no greater efforts than are demanded by the big telescopic truck cranes. That was the first stage of the metamorphosis of lattice boom crawlers.

The second stage, which has just begun, is the globalisation of the market and cross-pollination of ideas. The Europeans have seen how the market in North America has thrived in recent years, growing tenfold in five years (and the money that Manitowoc has made from it) and they are now fiercely fighting for a share of it. The Americans have realised that they must broaden their horizons if they are to survive the inevitable, eventual downturn in their home market. And the Japanese? The Japanese have been forced to step up their export efforts because of the ferocious beating they have taken from the downturn of construction activity in the Asia Pacific region. Fewer than half of the 514 crawler cranes built in Japan last year were sold to domestic customers.

All this is not to say that we have not seen Manitowoc cranes in Asia or Europe before, or that German and Japanese crawlers are not already established in the USA. But all players in this market are putting particular emphasis on their export profile. And to this end, all are learning lessons from each other.

The latest example of this is the 999, Manitowoc’s newest model, the launch of which was announced at the Intermat show in May and was first shown to customers at the end of last month. This crane represents Manitowoc’s endeavours to produce, for the first time, “a true international machine” in the words of Ron Schad (who at the time of describing the 999 to Cranes Today was general manager and executive vice president of Manitowoc Cranes but is now its biggest customer as president of crawler rental giant Essex Crane).

It is possible to see the development of the 250t-capacity 999 as a response to the competition, which is making inroads into the the stranglehold that the 209t-rated 888 has had on the market. Link-Belt’s LS 278, Liebherr’s LR 1250 and Kobelco’s 7200 (or CK 2500 in its North American version) have all made an impression. But Manitowoc insists that the 999 is not a replacement for the 888 and is confident that the 888 will still be preferred by its customers to anything the competition has brought out.

The real purpose of the 999, says Manitowoc, is to internationalise the company’s crane business. The Manitowoc Company has ambitious growth plans which, to date, it has managed to achieve, thanks in part to acquisitions in its food services division. The cranes side has acquired a couple of boom truck manufacturers but real growth will now have to be found in new markets – either new geographic markets or new product lines, or both. And now is the time to do it, while the core business of North American crawler cranes is thriving.

To boost its European sales Manitowoc Europe has effectively been closed down as a distribution channel (though it remains active as a service organisation) and the company is looking to use third party agents for sales. Manitowoc is also looking to manufacture booms in Europe for the first time to reduce shipping costs.

Manitowoc’s push into Europe is about more than selling a few more cranes – the market in Europe is barely worth the effort. What Manitowoc is actually trying to do, apart from trying to further enhance its balance sheet, is position itself as an international company to prepare for acquisitions. Companies that are being courted, according to rumours that Manitowoc is happy to let circulate, include French tower crane manufacturers and German mobile crane manufacturers.

While Manitowoc is redoubling its efforts in Europe, others have been targeting its North American dominance. Mannesmann Dematic has now reorganised its operations and overcome the problems associated with relocating from Ohio to South Carolina and of losing its head man, Roland Hammer, to the Liebherr distributor Schiller. The Demag team now led by Heinz Ott managed the transition “without ever dropping the ball”, according to Carl Marino of Marino Crane, a key customer.

Liebherr has also renewed its efforts in the North American crawler crane market. Schiller has been selling the Ehingen-built lift cranes but last year Liebherr-Werk Nenzing set up Liebherr Crawler Crane Company in Houston Texas. With US market needs in its sights, the Nenzing factory in Austria has broadened its product line beyond its traditional duty-cycle piling and foundation cranes to lift cranes, as typified by the 250t LR 1250 and the new 140 tonner, the LR 1140. All Liebherr Nenzing cranes, whether duty-cycle or lift cranes, are now certified to US standards (ANSI B30.5).

A third German manufacturer, Sennebogen, is also planning to set up distribution in North America, while R-B International of the UK is also desperately keen to get a foothold in North America. “Whatever we do in North America has to be by means of an alliance or a marketing agreement,” says sales director Paul Ross.

From Japan, there are Sumitomo, Kobelco, and now IHI and Hitachi cranes all in circulation in North America. Sumitomo’s presence in America has long been established through its ownership of Link-Belt. The population of IHI cranes is gradually increasing thanks to its marketing agreement with Terex American. And Hitachi, too, started marketing its 50t to 200t crawler cranes in North America last year.

The first step was to rent the first CX 900 (90t) to a customer in Alabama.

Over the years Sumitomo and Link-Belt have benefited from shared ownerhsip but the two companies have generally failed to grow beyond their traditional territories. Now, however, they have produced a new plan to tackle the global market, though further details are not yet available.

Joining Manitowoc and Link-Belt in making a pitch for the relatively small European market is the USA’s third manufacturer of lattice boom crawler cranes, American Crane. Now part of the Terex group, American is planning to have its HC 210 available in Europe, complete with CE mark, by October.

“We are going to increase our marketing efforts in Europe without a doubt,” says general manager Jerry Loughren, “both through our traditional American Crane dealers and through the Terex network.” The HC 210 (previously the AC 1500) is built in the USA, unlike other models offered by American Crane which are built by IHI in Japan and sold under licence. An obstacle to pushing these models in Europe is the IHI European distributorship held by AGD Equipment of the UK, even though American modifies the machines it brings over from Japan and changes the specifications, particularly of the boom.

Also relevant to this discussion is the continuing promotion of a Caterpillar-based crane series by Favelle Favco Cranes (USA), a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Muhibbah Engineering. These cranes have now been exhibited at Conexpo in the USA, Conet in Japan and Intermat in Paris, a rare and bold attempt by a manufacturer to push a new product into all three key markets simultaneously.

As part of this globalisation process, manufacturers are tailoring their products to their new markets. European manufacturers have learned that for the North American market stronger line pulls, for example, need to be offered. Also, it must be possible for cranes to be stripped down to smaller components than they can get away with under Europe’s axle loading based transport regulations.

From the other side of the Atlantic, Manitowoc for one has listened to European crane buyers. For example, the Manitowoc 999 features a new carbody design to get it into a 3m transport width to comply with European transport requirements, and the boom has been redesigned with diagonals removed so that the luffing boom can fit within the main boom when transporting to enhance its appeal in Europe.

With the European and Japanese manufacturers making inroads into the North American market, the Americans have decided it is time to be a little less open. To avoid giving any assistance to its competitors, Manitowoc decided last year to stop reporting its sales figures to the Construction Industry Manufacturers Association (CIMA), which collates market statistics. Link-Belt followed suit this year.

Also, while Link-Belt has always exercised a degree of caution about revealing its product development plans, Manitowoc used to be very open. But it kept news of the 999 under wraps until a month before its launch (although it kept customers sufficiently informed to have more than 45 units pre-sold). A couple of years ago Manitowoc would have been happy for us to report that the next machine out of Manitowoc will be a duty-cycle machine probably in or around the 120t to 130t class. Now, however, it may not be so keen.

The idea of a truly global market for crawler cranes is still some way off and will remain so until European and American manufacturers can crack the Japanese market. In the mid 1990s Japan accounted for more than half the world market of lattice boom crawler cranes. In spite of the hammering the market has taken, Japan will still account for something like a quarter of world sales this year. It is still three times bigger than the European market. And there are still no signs of any Americans or Europeans really cracking it.