Grove Europe has struck an agreement to distribute Kobelco hydraulic crawler cranes across the UK and Ireland.
The Kobelco range of crawlers includes more than 20 models from 45t up to 800t capacity.
Foundation contractors and the ports and harbours sector are to be particularly targeted.
“Kobelco crawlers are world leaders in their class,” said Grove UK sales director Bill Green, “and they extend our range at a time when there is a growth in demand for this type of equipment.” The move appears to confirm an awakening of the crawler crane market in the UK as contractors look to replace old mechanical machines with modern hydraulic cranes. Hitachi distributor HM Plant has also decided to start offering crawler cranes again for the first time since 1990 (HM Plant gets back into selling cranes Mar99, p7).
First sales of Kobelco by Grove Europe were a 150t capacity 7150 lift crane to contractor Christiani & Nielsen and three BM 500 foundation cranes to O’Kane Group of Northern Ireland.
Grove will exhibit an 80t BM 700C at the Site Equipment Demonstration (SED) show in Milton Keynes this month.
