Avtokran, the Russian manufacturer of the Ivanovets brand of mobile cranes, is the world’s biggest non-Chinese manufacturer of wheeled mobile cranes this year, if measured by unit.

Avtokran’s Ivanovo factory produced 1,258 wheeled telescopic mobile cranes in 2002, according to Russian government figures and the company itself, and its Briansk subsidiary made a further 320 units. This year Avtokran Ivanovo is on course to produce 1,300 machines.

Last year, combining the output of Terex and Demag, which Terex acquired during the year, gives a total of 1,901 hydraulic cranes, according to Terex Cranes president Fil Filipov, but total group output for 2003 will be 1,169 units, putting it in second place behind Avtokran this year. The reduction in numbers from Terex/Demag is mostly due to rationalisation of production in the USA, said Filipov.

In third place is probably Grove, which although it would not disclose its numbers is estimated to have produced about 600 units in the USA last year and 400 in Germany, giving it a total in the region of 1,000. Output in 2003 is expected to be broadly similar to 2002.

Next would come Liebherr or perhaps Tadano. Liebherr’s Ehingen factory last year produced 945 cranes, Liebherr says, but this includes crawlers. Production of telescopic wheeled mobiles was therefore in the region of 900 units. Liebherr confirmed that 2003 production figures would be very similar to 2002.

Tadano of Japan used to be able to claim first place but the collapse of the Japanese market has ended that. Tadano would not reveal its output but total telescopic crane production in Japan last year was 1,310 units. If Tadano accounted for 50% of this, its production in Japan would have been 655 units. Its Faun subsidiary is unlikely to have taken Tadano’s total output much beyond Liebherr’s, if at all.

Although Avtokran produces 1,300 cranes, its output is mostly 20t to 35t capacity models. By revenue, it is far from the largest and its $65m turnover for 2002 is dwarfed by its more established rivals.

And its output is clearly beaten by China’s truck crane manufacturers, the largest of whom is Xuzhou Heavy Machinery Works which produces 4,000 units a year and claims to have a 50% share of the market in China.

Don’t misss Phil Bishop’s interview with Avtokran’s Yul Armani in the October issue of Cranes Today.