TOWER TALK

Most tower crane manufacturers report a drop in sales last year compared with the previous two years, citing the decline of the Asian market as the obvious cause.

An exception appears to be Potain, which says that it managed to increase sales by 2.6% in spite of the collapse in sales in Asia. Whether this increase is accounted for merely by the acquisition of Germany’s BKT in the ninth month of the year, or by real organic growth, is not made clear.

The BKT acquisition gives Potain a stronger line of luffing jib towers and, for the first time, a range of flat-top cranes, a design of which Potain had previously been dismissive. The flat-top cranes are now designated MDT, and all BKT cranes are being put on Potain masts to maximise homogeneity of product.

Potain reckons that the addition of BKT gives it 30% of the world’s tower crane market, well clear of its largest competitor, Liebherr, which it reckons has an 18% share.

The rescue of BKT by Potain was the lesser of last year’s two big corporate acquisition stories. The bigger story was Terex moving into the tower crane sector by buying Peiner of Germany and Gru Comedil of Italy at the end of the year.

Potain views Terex’s entry into the tower crane market as a positive step, hoping it will help grow the tower crane market in the USA where Potain is keen to expand its presence. Nor does it seem too concerned, rightly or wrongly, that the Comedil/Peiner link-up under the Terex banner will steal market share in Europe. Terex has given firm targets to its tower cranes sales force. In Italy, for example, sales and profit must increase 20%, a target that Comedil’s Italy sales manager Simone Moritsch fully expects to achieve.

One way of meeting the targets is to expand the product range. To this end Terex has signed an agreement with Ferro, the Italian manufacturer of small self-erecting cranes. Terex will buy Ferro cranes in the range 14tm to 28tm and re-brand them as Comedil or, in Germany, Peiner.

This fills a gap at the bottom end of the Terex range of self-erectors, for Comedil offers a 32tm model while Peiner covers the range 38tm to 42tm.

It could prove to be a significant deal for Ferro, one of Italy’s longest established manufacturers, having been in business since 1927. Ferro currently makes about 300 units a year, according to sales and marketing manager Dario Mantovani. Mantovani does not expect production to double overnight on the back of the Terex deal, however.

According to Terex Lifting’s international sales & marketing vice president, Steve Filipov, Italy is one of the biggest tower crane markets and is dominated by self-erectors. For self-erectors alone, he estimates the market to be 700 units a year, compared with 500 a year for France. Potain marketing director Pierre-Yves le Daeron says that Filipov’s estimate is considerably lower than the real size of the Italian market, but is not prepared to disclose his own figure.

Potain is also seeking to extend the range of product it offers, but it is thinking laterally.

Parent company Legris Industries withdrew from mobile crane manufacturing in 1995 when it sold PPM to Terex. Potain has maintained a PPM service division since that time, but has now made a further move back into mobile cranes by offering the Potain Trio in France. Of course, the Potain Trio is in fact really the Marchetti Trio, re-badged.

Similar marketing agreements have been signed with Ron Laczko, for the Lasco portable crane (Lasco strikes… Mar99, p3), and German hoist manufacturer Geda for a series of rack and pinion construction hoists, for lifting materials and personnel. One of the hoists was shown by Potain at the Samoter show in Verona, Italy last month.

Leading the product diversification is Thibaut le Besnerais, formerly commercial director for France but now director of new product development. “I think we have to extend our range,” he says, and explains how Potain is well placed to sell a wider range of products. “We have a big network all over the world. We know contractors and we know rental companies.” As for the Trio, the theory is that it is just a small step from a small tower crane to a small, compact mobile crane and that there are occasions where Potain’s customers would be better with a Trio than a tower.

As well as the new hoist, also getting their first public showing at Samoter were two new self-erecting tower cranes: the HD 36 (1t at 36m), which is 2m longer than the HD 32A, but not as big as the HD 40A; and the GTMR 336B, which replaces the 336A, lifting 1.2t at 40m instead of 1t.

At the same show, Liebherr-Werk Biberach displayed a new top slewing crane, the 63 LC, as well as the 22 SE multi-crane system from its self-erecting range, and from the EC-H series the 140 EC-H 6 Litronic crane. The Litronic technology offers users the option, at the touch of a button, to move onto a second lifting chart with a 20% increase in load moment, at the cost of a slower operating speed.

The 63 LC extends an easy to erect, top slewing range which now includes the 30 LC, 63 LC, 80 LC and 100 LC. It can be used with either 4m or 12m tower sections.

Liebherr-Werk Biberach has suffered from the over-supply of tower cranes in Germany in the past couple of years but reports definite signs of improvement: “In general terms our [1998] results were better than the previous year.” Liebherr says that the German market improved slightly but most of the company’s improvement came from increased market share, gained as a result of the success of new models shown at Bauma 98. Most popular are said to be the revised self-erecting range and the 34 K, 42 K and 71 K models.

Other European markets including the UK, France and Scandinavia have picked up slightly over the last year with Spain probably showing the largest increase. “Spain is a hot market,” says Steve Filipov.

Not content with a buoyant home market, Spanish manufacturer Linden-Comansa made its Conexpo show debut in the USA last month, more than 20 years after the first Linden 8000 cranes went there. Much of the construction activity in the USA is low rise buildings that occupy large site areas such as hospitals, casinos and hotels. Electric tower cranes with long jibs are ideal for this type of job, Comansa says.

The US market was up again last year and those involved remain optimistic that Terex will help to grow the market. To a certain extent, increased demand for tower cranes in the USA has partially made up for the drop in Asia.

Only Hong Kong remains a good market in Asia, particularly for climbing cranes. Favelle Favco in Malaysia reports 20 luffing jib and 19 saddle jib cranes either sold or rented in 1998. This was valued at about $8m but sales were down on the previous two years, the company says. Favelle Favco has high hopes for its new Australian built M440DHS luffing jib crane which it has already sold in the USA (Favelle Favco builds… Feb99, p7).

Tower cranes are increasingly being hired by contractors instead of bought and it is a development that manufacturers do not want to miss out on. As well as selling cranes to rental companies, the manufacturers are increasingly renting out cranes directly themselves. As well as Favelle Favco in Malaysia, Man Wolffkran’s rental division in Germany accounts for 30% of the company’s turnover, and Potain is also offering cranes for rent rather than just purchase. It is a trend that looks set to continue.