New growth in India

Crane manufacturers in India showed high levels of business confidence at December’s Excon 2023, South Asia’s largest construction equipment event. Organised by Confederation of Indian Industry, the event ran between 12 and 16 December 2023 in Bangalore, South India. The show witnessed participation of fifteen countries, five country pavilions and 1,000+ exhibitors.

Liebherr’s LRT 1100-2.1 may find application in india’s coal mining sector.

V.G. Sakthi Kumar, Schwing Stetter XCMG India managing director, said, “Looking to cater for the rising demand in wind mill, refinery construction and maintenance, metro railway projects for lowering of TBM sections and handling of long precast concrete girder sections in India, we decided to showcase the 2,000 tonne XGC 33000 and 1,700 tonne XGC 2200 crawler lattice boom cranes. The high capacity cranes are specialized, for ease of configuration, for varied lifting jobs. This is mainly for distillation column erection in refinery projects, windmill projects for lifting of the nacelles.” The 2,000 tonne crane is working in the mega Barmer Refinery project in Rajasthan, North India, while the 1,700 tonner is working at HPCL Refinery expansion project at Paradip, in Eastern India.

Mine working

Liebherr India displayed its 100 tonne LRT 1100-2.1 rough terrain crane at the show. Subhajit Chandra, head of sales at Liebherr Cranes India, said, “The rough terrain crane adheres to superior EN 13000 features. The crane will be suitable for multiple applications in India for varied industrial construction and maintenance jobs.”

He continued, “We are looking to promote the rough terrain in the Indian coal mining sector. This would be for handling components of heavier capacity excavator buckets, booms, arms, shovels, draglines and tipper truck bodies for maintenance. Higher levels of safety are provided by the crane through its outriggers that can automatically calculate the dynamic load chart.”

Liebherr India also showed the 12 tonne NC-LH 1255 hydraulic electric luffing tower crane. Krishna Kumar, divisional head, Liebherr Tower Cranes India, said, “This is the first luffing crane to be made at our state of the art Pune facility in Maharsahtra, Western India. The crane can work at constricted work sites and we see usage of the cranes in high rise building in metropolitan cities taking place in clusters, where there are restrictions to boom slewing. With the first prototype ready, we are looking to begin commercial production of the crane from 2024 first quarter onwards.” He added, “One sister crane of similar capacity is undergoing trials in Australia.”

Potain’s MCH 175 luffing jib tower crane on show was on its way to Indian conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji.

Mentioning some key functionalities of the crane, Nikolaus Gstinig, area sales manager and area product manager at Liebherr Tower Cranes, said,“The luffing crane scores on very high levels of safety. This is facilitated by the frequency controlled drives that makes the crane’s load lifting and lowering absolutely jerk free. The micro movement also ensures lowering movement. The added safety feature of the crane, which makes its operation safe is the wind control mechanism.”

More towers

Manitowoc India displayed its Potain MCH 175 luffing jib tower crane. The company said it secured orders for 15 Potain tower cranes at the show, with many other promising leads for future sales.

“We showed the MCH 175 at this year’s exhibition because it’s the best crane of its type in the world. The exhibit reinforced commitment to bringing advanced lifting technology and solutions to the fast-growing Indian economy.” said Prashant Suryawanshi, managing director, Manitowoc India.

“The crane received a lot of attention, from major India contractors like Larsen & Toubro, Tata Projects and Patel Engineering. We showed visitors how next-level lifting innovation can help contractors keep pace with the country’s ambitious infrastructure aspirations.”

Indian construction equipment manufacturing conglomerate, Action Construction Equipment (ACE) displayed its new range of tower crane and a new pick and carry crane. The company also launched its new electric mobile crane among other products.

Sorab Agarwal, executive director, Action Construction Equipment, said, “We have launched our new 6 tonne FT 6040 flat top tower crane at the event with 60 metre jib. The crane is also available in an 8 tonne version. Widening our portfolio, further, we also showed our new F350 a 35 tonne pick and carry crane, new variants of 3 tonne telehandlers and the F150 15 tonne electric mobile crane. The new offerings as displayed reinforced our strong positioning as the sole Indian company to offer wide variants of cranes. The new pick and carry cranes, with five section boom will find application in infrastructure construction, maintenance, mining, steel stock yards and also industrial works.”

Unic truck mounted and spider cranes were displayed by distributor Fine Equipments.

ACE claims a 68 per cent share of the tower crane market in India. The company will soon launch upgrades of 10 to 16 tonne capacity flat top tower cranes for the Indian market. “The new version cranes will have upgraded lifting, slewing and travelling mechanism and safety features. The cranes will be targeted for general infrastructure, precast and pre-engineered buildings construction,” Agarwal said, “Widening our offerings in precast construction segment, we will be the first Indian crane manufacturer to come up with a 25 tonne, flat top tower crane in 2024. The crane is presently in its design stages.”

Agarwal continued, “We are highly positive on the prospects of the electric cranes. The cranes can be used in areas where there is an abundance of electricity. However, with the non formalisation of the Central Motor Vehicles Act in India, there are issues with the registration of the electric cranes.” ACE also showed its 60 and 80 tonne truck mounted cranes. The company will soon launch a 110 tonne truck mounted crane.

On further expansion in the cranes business, Agarwal said, “We have commenced production of rough terrain cranes, once again the only Indian company to do this, at the ACE Industrial Park at Palwal, Haryana in North India. At the facility we are now producing 20, 45 and 75 tonne models, out of which we have sold four units of 75 tonne rough terrain cranes. We propose to add up 30 and 55 tonne RT cranes to the portfolio, thereby making our offerings all composite in the RT segment.

The new industrial park facility also produces crawler lattice boom cranes.” ACE produces 45, 55, 75, 80 and 180 tonne crawler cranes. It will introduce a 100 tonner in 2024.

Commenting on the decision to venture into the business of RT cranes, Agarwal said, “The Indian Navy and Army approached us for safe product. This was due to the absence of any credible manufacturer based in India, backed with sound product support capabilities. We decided to encash the opportunity in this highly potential business segment, as we also saw rising demand of the cranes in urban metro construction in India and also general infrastructure construction and mining, among other segments. The utility of ACE RT cranes in India will be due to their compact footprint and ability to work on sites with highly uneven surfaces.”

Liebherr NC-LH 1255 hydraulic luffing jib tower crane rated at 12 tonnes and designed for urban construction.

Mini cranes

Indian Construction equipment manufacturer and distributor Fine Equipments showed the Furukawa Unic UR-V373 truck mounted, three section, telescopic boom crane and UR series crawler mounted, mini telescopic boom cranes. Fine is the exclusive distributor of Furukawa telescopic cranes in India. The UR-V373 can lift 3 tonnes at a 2.4 metre working radius.

Rajnikant Kandhavey, head of sales at Fine Equipments Limited said, “The UR-V series telescopic cranes feature higher levels of outreach, highly accurate load placement, superior durability. One of the most important features of the cranes is that the boom can be rotated 360 degrees.”

The mounting support to the truck chassis and the integration for the telescopic kit and the main truck engine is done by Fine Equipments.

He said, “The telescopic cranes are finding good usage for log handling, industrial usage. Most importantly, the cranes are being used for loading and transporting of marble blocks in India.”