Manitowoc’s mobile crane brand Grove has broken fresh ground in the Middle East this year, making a big push into the truck-mounted crane market segment with the launch of three new models in the region: the Grove TMC250, TMC550 and TMC750.
Picture this: You are the king of your domain, ruling all you see by dint of your ability and excellence, well known and regarded by all. You are the one that everyone goes to when there is a problem to solve, and you invariably provide the solutions – solutions that everyone praises for being steeped in quality and longevity.
But eventually, wannabe usurpers show up and carve their own slice out of your domain, edging you to the margins where those slices are concerned. So what do you do? How do you respond? You are strong, you are resilient; you have a legacy and track record of excellence to fall back on that your opposition does not – and what’s more, you still have everyone’s confidence because you continue to do what you do better than the newcomers.
So you take on the opposition on their own turf, bringing your A-game to the field to double down on them and show them for the wannabes that they are. You prove you’re still king of the hill.
If you’re wondering what kings and usurpers have to do with cranes and new launches, then substitute the king here for Grove and the usurpers for the recent competition that has swamped the truck-mounted crane segment – and you get the picture.
In the last 10 years, the truck-mounted crane has emerged as the volume churning segment of the mobile crane sector, now representing approximately 57% of the total market for mobile cranes in the Middle East, CIS and Africa markets, with the remainder made up by all-terrain cranes (AT) and rough terrain cranes (RT) combined. So, for every two truck-mounted cranes sold in this wider region, there is only one AT or RT sold.
Being a traditional market leader in the AT and RT segments, Grove knows only too well that to remain atop the pile in the mobile crane sector, it needs to have a large presence in the substantial new truck-mounted crane segment – where it has not been a volume player in the region in recent times.
“This is why we needed to get back into the truck-mounted crane market, with a product that takes on the competition head-on and does what they do better than them,” Andrew Youssef, General Manager, Africa, Middle East and CIS, at Manitowoc Crane Group, tells PMV Middle East. The product is the Grove TMC truck-mounted cranes for the emerging markets. With their official Middle East launch taking place in July this year, Grove finally got into the groove to challenge for the top spot in the segment.
The competition Youssef is alluding to is from China, and has emerged as the largest supplier of truck-mounted cranes to the Middle East – and indeed the world – with its plethora of brands, big and small.
“In 2023, over 2,000 units of truck-mounted cranes came into our region compared to around 1,400 units of ATs, RTs and lattice boom crawler cranes combined. The truck-mounted crane is a fast-moving item among cranes – and most of them come from China,” he explains.
“Grove is traditionally strong in the mobile crane segment with our GMK and GRT ranges. But to be able to keep Grove in the thick of the action in the regional crane market across all sorts of lifting solutions, we needed to have truck-mounted cranes that could compete in the market and hold their own against all players. And that’s why we introduced our new Grove TMC truck-mounted crane range this year.”
Describing the machine and what went into developing Grove’s own version to compete successfully in the market, Youssef adds: “It’s an everyday machine that puts up a light post, it helps with civil construction, it’s an hourly-rental with a price point that is very good from a return-on-investment perspective, and it is the go-to crane for all sorts of small, simple, everyday lifting jobs.”
Grove meets market demands
“In order to make a crane that could compete in the segment, we first asked the market what they are really looking for and took those factors into consideration in the specification and production of our models.
“The market told us that they needed an attainable price point, first and foremost. They needed a crane that was mechanical and easy to use, had everything that was essential and nothing that was not, that could do the work day in and day out, and be reliable enough to not give any reasons for worry.”
Youssef states that Manitowoc realised it needed to come up with a Grove that didn’t potentially have all the bells and whistles, and just be a machine that could work day to day in a variety of different jobs at an affordable price.
“A lot of Grove cranes today are technology-laden, with software, electronics and modern tech solutions. Our new truck-mounted cranes, however, needed to be mainly mechanical, using legacy technologies and components that the market is familiar with. So we used legacy technologies, design and solutions to have a product that can immediately compete in the market. We needed to deconstruct our cranes to make the new Grove TMC range a base crane for the market. That’s what you see in the truck-mounted crane segment – and that’s what we’ve brought to the market,” says Youssef.
He explains further that the new Grove TMC range of truck-mounted cranes is a do-it-all runabout that can go up to a job-site, perform the lifts and move on to the next job-site.
Most roadable crane
“One of the beauties of the truck-mounted crane is that it is the most roadable of the mobile cranes. You can drive it up and down highways and city roads, and access projects all around cities and outskirts. They are commonly used in the Middle East in projects such as construction of villas and small apartment blocks. They’re not doing heavy lifts but assisting in constructing low-rise building and infrastructure and civic projects, such as helping with pipe-laying or landscaping. They’re really a Swiss Army Knife of cranes and a tool on the job-site.”
Youssef adds that this makes the truck-mounted crane a very easy crane to rent, especially given its price point, which enables it to reach a market segment that potentially couldn’t afford an AT or RT.
“You have owners that are single users, for whom the single truck-mounted crane that they own is their livelihood. In Dubai, for example, you can go into some of the industrial areas and see truck-mounted cranes parked by the roadside with placards and boards on them, waiting to be hired.
“These are the mom-and-pop operators, who probably have that one crane that they rent out for a variety of jobs and they operate it themselves. So we wanted to bring to the market a crane that competes in such a segment also, because that is a significant section of the market,” Youssef elaborates.
That significant section of the market is also what the Grove distributor ecosystem wanted Manitowoc to target, and had been insisting on for a while. Commenting on this, Kannan Chandrasekaran, General Manager – UAE, Oman & Bahrain, at regional Grove dealer Kanoo Machinery, reveals that in the last 5-6 years the truck-mounted crane market has emerged as a very large one, with Chinese brands being very important players now.
“The growth in the made-in-China cranes in terms of their portion of the truck-mounted crane pie is growing exponentially. Their application is particularly on the short-term rental side, with contractors who don’t want expensive cranes but are instead looking for workable solutions that perform the tasks required, which is where the Chinese cranes are designed to fit in. The typical cranes that a brand such as Grove makes have a lot of features. But when you are doing a simple, short-term project for five days or so, you don’t need all those features – and customers are not willing to pay for what is redundant to their purposes,” Chandrasekaran says.
Grove cuts out complexities
“For complex oil & gas and infrastructure lifts, you need a crane that is feature-packed with inching and precision lifting, but if you are only lifting and placing things like AC units or overhead tanks on a rooftop at a building construction site in any GCC country, then you do not need all those features.”
For every crane there is a market, he adds, or a niche in the market. And for the truck-mounted crane, that niche is definitely the biggest in the GCC crane market. “As a Grove dealer, we identified this niche, and so did Manitowoc. And we were pushing Grove to get in a model that fits the purpose for this segment. They listened to us and brought in the three new Grove truck-mounted cranes to the market.”
Those three models are the Grove TMC250, TMC550 and TMC750. Describing the cranes, Youssef explains that, as the numbers suggest, these have 25-, 55- and 75-tonne lift capacities. All three models use Cummins engines, FAST transmissions and WIKA load moment indicators, he adds.
“Among the key features of the 55t model is its 45-metre boom, the longest boom in the truck-mounted crane market. With the jib added, the total length becomes 61m, which is a class-leading figure. When it comes to tonnage, the market operates in classes. By having the 25-, 55- and 75-tonne models, we’re able to move between several tonnage classes and cover a broad spectrum of uses for our cranes, thus broadening their appeal in the market,” Youssef explains.
“The USP of Grove’s truck-mounted cranes is that they are designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. We haven’t equipped them with very complicated systems that need expertise to operate and maintain, yet any operator who has used a Grove GMK will instantly be at home in the cab and be able to operate these cranes with ease.”
“For the Middle East, the specs that we chose are completely relevant to the conditions here of high temperatures, dust and sand. The product is specified to be used in very tough conditions. It’s not the made-in-wherever that people are buying; they’re buying the Grove brand and what that has come to stand for. And that brand comes with several advantages, such as over a 100-year history of excellence, and most of all, it comes with a superior service back-up, providing peace of mind that whatever happens, there is Grove’s support to fix it through our extensive dealer network, with the assurance of genuine, quality parts and components.”
Manitowoc’s track record
Youssef emphasises that Manitowoc equipment has helped build “much of what you see around the Middle East”, whether the famous high-rises of Dubai, the expansive projects of Saudi or the oil & gas installations all around the region.
Bolstering his point, Chadrasekaran adds: “The moment you mention Grove, there is a perception of quality established over decades. At the end of the day, these are Grove cranes. When Grove sells a product they make sure that it offers a level of quality that is in keeping with the reputation of the brand.
“Actually, these Grove truck-mounted cranes are the ideal marriage of quality and economy. While China gives you economical manufacturing, Grove ensures that the product is up to the quality standards expected from the brand. This makes it a win-win situation for all, especially the customer.”
Another winning point for Grove is the service back-up, and Youssef says: “Grove has the best distributor network in the Middle East, with expertise that can support customers with comprehensive solutions – such as commissioning, erecting, disassembly, etc. Having strong partners is among the strongest parts of our business, and the new cranes will fit seamlessly in with our 27-strong dealer network in the countries that we control from our Dubai office. No other competitor has that sort of a network.”
Youssef reveals that a common complaint of customers of competing truck-mounted crane brands is that there’s nobody to help when their cranes break down. “They can’t get the parts; the OEMs do not have manpower to fix the cranes quickly; they can help by text or remotely, but when help is really needed, customers feel they are by themselves. They say they are better off just looking into the market for parts rather than asking the dealer or manufacturer.
“With Grove, all parts of our truck-mounted cranes come through our system, the same system that has always kept all our other cranes running out there day-in and day-out like clockwork. The way a customer orders parts for a Grove GMK or GRT is the same way that they will find parts for our truck-mounted cranes,” he says.
“Well before we launched these new Grove TMCs, we started the exercise of training all our dealers to maintain these cranes, stock up on all the parts and have all behind-the-scenes logistics in place. This actually took the longest time. We wanted to launch the new TMC range in January, but we needed to make sure that we had the data sheets, the product guides, the parts, trained technicians – all of the support structure ready. We sent our top mobile trainer to the factory to get trained on the products, so that we can transfer that knowledge to our dealers here on how to work on these cranes,” Youssef reveals.
Expansion of support team
“In fact, we’ve also expanded our local team here in the Middle East with people from the factory so that they can be based in Dubai as a bridge between the factory and the market. And from the parts standpoint, we offer extended warranties, RPO, recommended parts packages, etc., which our competition does not.
“All this leads to a low Total Cost of Ownership – and this is very important. We have positioned the Grove TMC range such that a lot of customers will be able to afford to acquire and run them, and their return on investment will be quick and high due to the added factor of a low TCO.”
Working behind the scenes to keep TCO low for customers is Grove’s untiring dealer network, as exemplified by the likes of Kanoo, and Chandrasekaran explains: “This is the definite edge that Grove has over its mainly Chinese competition, whose weak point is distribution and after-sales support. Sometimes they sell their cranes directly to customers and sometimes they appoint temporary distributors in a territory, which then changes.
“There is an absence of standardisation in the sales and after-market processes they follow, with an adverse impact on customers, who often have to run from pillar to post to find support for the cranes they have bought.
“On the other hand, Grove has a time-tested policy in this regard, with established, long-standing distributors across the GCC. Kanoo Machinery, for example, has been Grove’s distributor for over 40 years and we have full expertise on Grove cranes and a track record of supporting some of the biggest and most prestigious customers in the business. So that creates a sense of peace and assurance in the minds of customers.”
Grove bullish on the product
Youssef concludes: “There are two reason we are bullish on Grove truck-mounted cranes: Firstly, low-cost manufacture of a high-quality and capable product with Grove’s expertise and standards behind it; and, second, a standardised distribution and after-sales support ecosystem to give peace of mind to customers.”
With the twin pillars of the right product and the right support both in place, Grove is now indeed in the groove to build its supremacy in the Middle East’s truck-mounted crane segment.
GROVE TMC550: Tech Specs
Boom: 11.6m to 45m, 5-section
Max tip height: 61m
Counterweight: Total 10t (6.5t fixed, 3.5t movable)
Hydraulic system: Load-sensitive, post-valve compensation, 3-section gear pump
Hoist: Max single line speed 125m/min
Truck Chassis: 4-axle, all welded, high-strength steel
Axle lines: 4 axles in 2 pairs – 2 steering axles (front), 2 driven
Engine: Dongfeng Cummins, 6-cylinder, turbo diesel, Tier III
Power and torque: 250kW @ 2,100rpm, 1,425Nm @1,100-1,400rpm
Transmission: FAST, 9-shift