Al Jaber Heavy Lift and Transport is an independent division of the Al Jaber Group. The United Arab Emirates-based conglomerate encompasses construction, industry and trading. The heavy lift and transport division works across the Middle East and Asia, on a wide range of construction jobs. It focuses on petro-chemical and power projects, for clients such as ABB and Bechtel.
On the mobile side, the company owns around 125 RTs, from 25t-90t, and 50 ATs, up to 650t. Dave Woods, plant manager, explained that, as the company generally works on long contracts in the same location, it sees more demand for RTs than for ATs. Al Jaber also owns around 130 crawlers, and some rubber-tyred lattice boom cranes, used for its heaviest jobs.
For a major player like Al Jaber, relationships with crane manufacturers need to be a two-way process. Woods says, “Buying a crane isn’t like going to a supermarket. We try to keep ahead of developments. We’ll work with any manufacturer who’s willing to give and take advice: the crane companies do take end user opinions on board now, more now than they did before.
An example of this involvement in the development process is the CC8800 Twin that Al Jaber has purchased from Terex Demag. Based on the 1250t CC8800-1, the 3200t features twin booms on a standard CC8800 base. Woods explained that Al Jaber had looked for a very heavy lifting system based on standard crane technology, rather than alternative lifting systems such as the strand jacks used in Mammoet’s MSG cranes.
He said, “Terex were willing to come to us and discuss what a very heavy crane should be. We will be using it for refinery work, where bigger and higher vessels of all sizes and shapes are being installed. We followed the path of a modular format. It can be assembled offsite, and then be tracked in, pick and carry, and slew. Hopefully it will be more acceptable to construction clients. The technology used is familiar to our engineers, and when it isn’t needed for the heaviest jobs, we can use it as a standard CC8800.”
