A new lifting association has been established in Saudi Arabia as an initiative of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, to promote crane safety in the kingdom.
The first meeting was held on 24 April in Aramco’s Roads & Heavy Equipment Department (R&HED). It was attended by 70 people from 35 companies, including representatives of equipment manufacturers Liebherr, Grove, Terex and Tadano.
The meeting was called by Nasser Al Ajmi, manager of Aramco’s R&HED, and a presentation was made by Aramco heavylift engineer Hosam Hashem about the goals and expectations of the association.
Hashem said that aim was to develop regulations for lifting operations in the Middle East and to educate crane owners and users.
At the first meeting a task force was set up to produce a constitution and framework for the association.
– – A crane safety seminar was held by Bahrain’s Labour Ministry in May to discuss the lessons learned from a tower crane collapse last year and promote safer lifting operations.
