One importer believes that the future of large crawler cranes and material handling equipment should be stronger, simpler… and in Saudi Arabia
The race to build ever-heavier cranes is gaining weight in the region – if you’ll pardon the pun. Recently, we have seen Terex-Demag and ALE-Al Jaber lock horns for the title of the biggest lattice boom crane, while in the world of luffing towers, German manufacturers Wolff and Wilbert are reaching for the sky.
In tracked crawler cranes, the situation is little different. Ever larger units have been launched, thanks in no small part to a need in the region to modernise the fleets used for oil and gas installations, and until recently, demand from the construction industry has necessitated large lattice-boom equipment.
While the market has slowed, the trend globally for ever-heavier equipment looks set to continue, with Eng. Khalid Pappert, MD of Sennebogen Middle East, remarking: “At the moment, the largest crane we sell is 200 tonnes, but at the next Bauma show we will be selling a 300-tonne model.”
He said that these weren’t the most popular models for the local region, with the majority of orders in the UAE having been for 45-tonne mobile cranes. “Most people here think in terms of rough terrain telescopic cranes, so this weight class is our most popular and fastest moving item – useful for all kind of lifting jobs.”
Elsewhere in the issue this month, we look at crane safety, and how the years take their toll on the upper structure. Pappert agrees: “[The lifespan of cranes] is the biggest discussion with our clients that we have.”
Expanding on this, he commented: “Material from the Far East is not the same as the material from Europe. So there is a big gap between all of the various European and Far East manufacturers.”
“For example, the life cycle of some Far-East cranes is ten to twelve, or maybe fifteen years. Cranes from Europe though, might last more like thirty to thirty-five years.”
“Of course, both sets are cranes. So if you have an eighty-tonne crane from here and another from there, you can lift eighty tonnes. This is a fact. But what is the real cost? First of all, you need to purchase an item [and] the European item will be a little bit more costly than a Far East product, for example. But then, you will have a higher service and spare parts cost, and follow-on costs for Far East products are much higher than those for European products.”
“The European products’ life cycle is very long. Meanwhile, Far East products, may need repairing after two or three years, while European products might only need repairs after eight to ten years. It saves a lot.”
Asides from the perhaps typical views of a European crane vendor, Pappert sees KSA as the Gulf country with the most potential for growth in the near future.
“At the moment, I would say that the biggest market in the Gulf is Saudi Arabia. Also the Saudi market has a closed financial system, they are not reliant on the World Bank, so they can purchase more easily than some of the countries in the Gulf.”
“We know that the situation in the Gulf at the moment is not too lively. Most of the construction projects are postponed and the projects that have been started will be finished and that they have enough material and machinery at the moment, they don’t want to purchase any items. Meanwhile, they want to sell some items, as they have more than they need.”
As well as cranes, Sennebogen produces a range of material handling machines. We don’t often cover this sector, but – put simply – it is equipment that relates to the movement, storage, control and protection of materials, throughout the process of manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. Scrap grapples are the most common example.
In fact, the firm was one of the first to make such equipment, as its first factory was established in the aptly named German town of Piling. Pappert explained: “It’s not a new way of handling any more, as these machines have been around a long time. The material handling machines exist for a long time and it is a faster way to handle than using cranes, for example. If you imagine you work with a crane and a clamshell, for example, needs to discharge a vessel, you can do the same work for 30 or 40 percent of the time because the cycle time is much faster. It is a fact that a crane with its wire ropes takes a bit longer for a complete cycle than a material handling machine.”
On the subject of technology, Pappert is slightly unusual in that he feels that sophisticated electronics should remain in development, as the extremes of the desert can quickly bring about breakdowns.
“This is the main problem in the Gulf, as you have a high temperature during the day and at night it drops by about forty percent, so the malfunctions here are caused primarily because of the high temperature, but also the variation in the temperature up and down between night and daytime,” he says. “You have a lot of breakdowns because of this, and more often than not it needs specialist repair.”
“This means the client, the end user, needs to order from the manufacturer, which is costly and takes time.” He added that his machines had simple telematics.
Electronics or not, we are looking forward to seeing the 300-tonne crawler at Bauma next year.