Friday round up: Best briefings, TopLift winners, rocket launch, Europe’s construction recovery

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifts off on its inaugural launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday morning. (Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK via Reuters Connect)

We started the week rounding up the top ten stories of Crane and Transport Briefing. Since launching our daily briefing last year, we’ve been delighted to share the most important and compelling news, opinions, and stories from the crane and transport industry. We rounded up the best - from a 14,000 tonne crane in development in China to revealing the world’s fastest-growing crane-owning companies with the latest iteration of the IC100.

Curious about which lift took home the top spot of our annual TopLift competition? We revealed the winner and runner ups on Tuesday. The brilliant and worthy winner tackled a complex and delicate operation involving a historic 112-year-old sailing ship that required a custom-engineered solution in a tight space. If you think one of your projects is worthy of submission for next year’s shortlist, please do get in touch.

For Wednesday’s briefing, Hannah Sundermeyer reported on the transport operations to launch Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. The rocket successfully launched yesterday at 02:02 local time. Tasked with the out-of-this-world transport was TII Scheuerle’s HighwayGiant, a dual-lane trailer engineered for the transport of exceptionally heavy loads.

On Thursday we examined a forecast report from Bain & Company which optimistically indicated that Europe’s construction industry would see a lift this year, with cranes being pivotal to the recovery. The report suggested that after years of challenges including rising costs, supply chain disruptions, and a protracted decline in activity, there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel.