Today on Cranes Today Magazine

Straightpoint load cells vital in gas project lift

Components for a gas facility, including a 718t absorption tower, were offloaded at the Port of New Orleans using a Liebherr crane and load cells from UK-based Straightpoint.

Sarens takes to the air with Boeing lift

The South African division of heavy lift specialist Sarens has lifted a Boeing 737-300 aircraft across a highway.

Valley bridged with the help of Potain tower cranes

Crane company Comasco has supplied six Potain tower cranes to assist the construction of what will be the tallest bridge in Israel.

XCMG and Kamaz found co-operation deal
19 February, 2015 Chinese crane manufacturer XCMG has established a co-operation agreement with Kamaz, the biggest truck manufacturer in Russia.

Telecrawler builds slipway in Germany
German construction and engineering company TweWe-Bau has used a Sennebogen 673 telecrawler to construct a new slipway.

Kobelco supplies further Johnson expansion
UK crane company GH Johnson Crane Hire has added two Kobelco CKE800G crawler cranes to its portfolio.

First GMK6400 sold into Africa
UK-based crane dealer Paterson Simons has sold a Grove GMK6400 all terrain crane to Mobicrane, representing the first of its kind to be used in Africa.

Grove RT aids new airport terminal in Brazil
Construction contractor Constran is using its Grove RT880E rough terrain crane at a project to expand an airport in Brazil.

LATEST FEATURES

Sai Infraaequipments
16 February, 2015 Sai Infraaequipments, based in Bangalore, was established in 1985 as an aggregate supplier. The company moved into excavation and transportation, working for Indian major contractors like Larsen and Toubro. In 2002, it added ready mix concrete, and in 2007, tower cranes and hoists. Managing director K.Ilango talked to Cranes Today about the company at bC India.

Going the distance
Parts, service and support is crucial for the all-terrain crane user and hire companies alike reports Adrian Greeman

Living with the new normal
China’s president Xi Jinping stressed in speeches in 2014 that the country—and its trading partners—would have to accept a ‘new normal’ of restrained growth, not the double digit percentage rates of previous decades. At Bauma China, Will North found manufacturers facing up to this new reality.

French connection
The lifting and handling industry will converge in Paris in April for the Intermat show. We look at some of the highlights in the first of three preview articles.

Liebherr’s PowerBoom used on LR 11000
Liebherr's 1,000t LR 11000 crawler crane has been used with its PowerBoom system for the first time. The system, a parallel boom that increases load capacities, was used with the LR 11000 crane at a wind turbine project in northern Germany.

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BLOGS

Standards in the digital age
16 February, 2015 I recently met with a contact who has, for many years, been active in developing standards and best practice guidance. He pointed out that while he learnt to understand documents like this by reading carefully through binders full of A4 pages, this sort of reading is becoming less common. Many of us will still spend much of our day reading and otherwise dealing with written material, but on a screen of one form or another, and not as a single long document that we read uninterrupted from start to finish.

Closing the global skills gap
Over the last year, we've seen complaints from crane owners around the world about a shortage of skilled operators. In some ways, this is one of those good problems: it's a sign that, globally, the crane industry recognises the importance of qualifed operators and rigging crew to safe and efficient lifting.

Slow progress
This time last year, I talked about how 2013 had been one of limited change. In many ways, and particularly on the business side of the sector, this year has been too. Progress on rental rates and sales does not seem to have picked up at the rate the industry would've liked. In this issue, we open with a round-up of the last quarter's financial results, across a range of listed crane manufacturers and dealers. The news is not particularly good.

Right to strike?

Looking back, seeing how far we've come
This issue, our backpage features an interview with George Cossington, who entered the crane industry in the 1950s. Cossington told Spitalfileds Life, a London history blog, how he came to the industr y as part of a family of steeplejacks. He describes his father insisting that here, in construction, rather than in the Merchant Navy he had wanted to join, he'd find a secure job with a pension.