IC Tower Index ranking 2025: steady as she goes

Select Plant Hire has 12 of these Terex CTL 1600-66 luffers in its extensive fleet. Photo: Terex/KHL

Once again the IC Tower Index ranking of the world’s largest tower crane-owning companies is up on the previous year. Both the top 20 and top five IC Tower Index totals are still up, by a similar small percentage as last year. For the top five companies it is rather lower than 2024, suggesting things are slowing more at the top with the rest of the table maybe following suit next year.

Total capability, measured by adding together the total tonne-metre ratings for all the tower cranes in the fleets of the top 20 companies is up 2.3 % from 8.8 million to a little over 9 million points.

For the top five companies the total is up less, by just 1.7 %, to 7.083 million points which on the face of it suggests smaller companies are doing slightly better than those in the top five, (see above) the opposite of last year’s numbers.

In terms of the number of cranes the 2025 total for the top 20 companies is 24,986, up a decent 3.6 % on the 2024 total of 24,113 units. It is still 873 more cranes among the top 20 companies than there were last year. Rudimentarily dividing that total among the 20 means nearly 44 more cranes per company which sounds like quite a few.

Percentage-wise the number of depots is up hugely, by 24 % to 679 from 467 but largely due to a variation in the reported number at one company so maybe don’t read anything much into that.

The 2025 IC Tower Index table. Image: KHL Group

By the numbers

The only measure showing a decline is the total number of employees, at 16,957, down 3 % on the 17,480 of 2024. Is that due to implementation of technology like AI to increase efficiency or is there just less work to do because fewer cranes are going out?

On a positive note we have two new entries – Trinac from Germany and Liangjian Engineering Equipment Service Company from China. Welcome to them. Looking at ICST sister magazine ACT’s tower crane ranking there are two new entries in there for 2025 – Bay Crane Companies and Torre Crane. Maybe one day we’ll also see them in the IC Tower Index.

Two companies have been deleted from the IC Tower Index. Québec, Canada-based Guay exited the ranking after selling off its tower crane fleet. Also removed was Neremat due to a lack of new data.

Where in the table

In terms of places, the top three are unchanged, led by the mighty NFT from Abu Dhabi, followed by Shanghai Pangyuan and then Liebherr in third. NFT increased its capability by 3.2 % and Liebherr by 1.27 %. In line with the market decline in China, Shanghai Pangyuan posted a drop of 0.9 %.

Flying in the face of that, however, is the next company in the table, Tat Hong, which has gained a place by adding an impressive 5 %, despite most of its tower crane business being in China. It displaced Uperio. Morrow, in 6th place also gained one over last year.

First of the new entries is Liangjian Engineering Eqpt Service Co, all the way up in 7th place. It has a large fleet of more than 700 cranes and it has large cranes, including the 3,200 tonne-metre rated Zoomlion R3200-160V which lifts 160 tonnes.

Wolffkran drops two places to 8, largely due to the interloper above but it has also reduced its is fleet significantly, culling its capability by 18 %. Outside the top ten the change is minimal, and not by more than three places in any case. The second new entry, Trinac, also from Germany, joins in 23rd place.

A second year of smaller growth in a world market stuffed to the gunwales with uncertainty, coupled with manufacturers experiencing reduced sales of new cranes, points towards a less good outlook for next year. Mind you, tower cranes last a very long time so let’s hope to be proved wrong.