It has ordered two 900t-capacity Manitowoc 21000 crawlers, five 400t-capacity Manitowoc 16000s and 60 all-terrain cranes ranging from two to five axles. In Europe, Grove mobile cranes are made in factories in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and in Niela Tanaro, Italy. Two-thirds of the mobile crane order value would come from Germany, and one third from Italy. The cranes will be delivered in 2009 and 2010.
Roderik van Seumeren praised Manitowoc for listening to its needs. “We felt recognised,” he said. “It’s a changing world, and not all suppliers feel the same. In this market you can sell cranes to all. We felt we have been put as a front-runner. We were happy to do the deal.”
He added that some other manufacturers sell cranes through brokers, but not Manitowoc Crane Group.
He said that the company had ordered so many cranes because of the economy, which does not depend on one region. “The whole world is booming for us. The demand for energy is so huge,” van Seumeren said, adding that the company currently has another two to three years’ work. He said that most of the cranes would be operated in Europe. Demand for energy projects and mining are particularly strong in India, China, Brazil and Australia, he said.
Frans Vanwinkel, Manitowoc senior vice president of sales and marketing, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that the company had arranged the relatively short crane delivery times using a complex system. “We have a system that allocates certain types of customers certain cranes.”
All of the crawlers except one of the 16000s will come with maximum main boom and luffer. All the mobiles will come with fly jibs.
Mammoet does not have particular jobs lined up for the cranes, Van Seumeren said. “The flexibility we have at Mammoet is that at the last moment we can decide where the cranes go.”
The company currently owns one Manitowoc 21000, which is operating in Florida. Van Seumeren said that the company has 1,300 telescopic cranes, 350 crawler cranes and more than 900 lines of self-propelled modular trailers, with an order of 500 extra lines coming from Scheuerle in 2009. The company currently has 2,500 people, but by 2010 it will employ 4,000. It employs 800 in the Americas, 1,000 on the Netherlands payroll (many of whom travel to Asia), 200 in the Middle East and 500 in Southeast Asia. Its turnover is EUR 600m, roughly split into thirds between Europe, the Americas and Asia. “With good people, you can run this many cranes,” van Seumeren said. “That’s the trick, to have a lot of well-motivated people.”
The purchase is in line with the increased growth plan of mammoet which is supported by the shareholders’ restructuring of two years ago, said Roderik van Seumeren.
He added that the company would sell some of its current crane stock, such as for example 25-year-old Demag CC 4800s, depending on the market.
Phillipe Cohet, Manitowoc crane group executive vice president, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that not only the size of the order was important for the company. “It’s important to establish a global sales presence in crawlers. That was not the case a few years ago.”
The sale was organised by by Manitowoc Crane Group’s northwest Europe team in Breda, Netherlands, led by Klaus Kroeppel, and crawler crane sales staff Remo Archangeli and Giuseppe Pompeo.
