The crane market is stirring–slightly
Published in: Diesel Progress North American Edition
Date: 5/1/2005
By: Yengst, Charles
Depending on what kind of cranes you’re talking about, life has been tough in the crane market. For much of the last decade, hydraulic rough-terrain and all-terrain cranes have had their difficulties. The same is true for hydraulic truck cranes and lattice boom cranes. In the 1970s, we used to have sales of thousands of these machines and then the market disintegrated and dropped into the hundreds overnight. That was when the whole industry consolidated from a number of big players to just a few.
Today we have several domestic suppliers still left in the business. These include Grove Worldwide, part of Manitowoc Cranes; Terex Cranes, with a number of crane companies in its stable; Link-Belt, which is part of Sumitomo Heavy Industries; Broderson; and Shuttlelift. In addition, there are manufacturers importing cranes from Europe and Japan that are beginning to gain some strength in the North American marketplace. Overall, the market is a much smaller sandbox than it was 25 years ago and the business has changed radically.
The market size for rough-terrain hydraulic cranes has crumbled since the late ’90s. Last year’s sales were still 34% below what they were in 2000 and 50% below 1998. This included a spurt exceeding 15% over 2003 demand, which was the low point in sales for the past 10 years.
Sales for the past four years have danced around an average of 700 units, which is pretty bad considering average sales during most of the 1990s was over 1000 units annually This product, which has long been a mainstay in the crane business, is barely breathing.
All-terrain cranes are big in Europe, but have also had lackluster sales for much of the past 10 years, until last year. The stars all lined up in 2004 and demand jumped 75% from the low point of 80 units in 2003. However, sales of these machines are still low relative to what they should be. In Germany, for example, sales of all-terrain cranes are four to five times the levels seen here in North America. Germans prefer all-terrain cranes to rough-terrain machines, which have very low sales there. For a market the size of North America, all-terrain crane sales should be considerably higher than they are. I am sure the crane suppliers would agree.
Lattice boom cranes are another winning market (not). For the past four years, sales have averaged just over 200 units annually, which is very low. Sales should at least be 250 to 300 units a year.
In rough-terrain cranes, Grove is still the big winner with over 40% of the market. Grove also gets first prize in the all-terrain crane market. In addition, for lattice boom cranes, Manitowoc, Grove’s parent, is the leader. Therefore, Grove and Manitowoc are the top companies for these three crane markets. Terex is second in the all-terrain and rough-terrain crane markets and third in the lattice boom market. Link-Belt has the second slot in lattice boom machines, but is in third in rough-terrain cranes and fourth in all-terrain cranes.
One company that needs mentioning is Tadano of Japan, which has been selling cranes in North America for several years. Tadano has captured a small share in all-terrain and rough-terrain cranes and hydraulic truck cranes. I haven’t mentioned hydraulic truck cranes, but Grove is the leader in that market as well. Hydraulic truck crane sales are near 200 units annually. We’re not talking about truck-mounted cranes here, as that market is considerably bigger than the truck cranes.
Liebherr, another importer, is third in the all-terrain crane market, and the company carries a very small position in the lattice boom crane market.
Industrial cranes are the very low end of the rough-terrain crane business. Broderson is the leader in this niche and accounts for more than half of all sales. The company also competes in the rough-terrain crane market, but has less than 5% of the pie. In 2004, industry sales of these cranes topped 625 units, up nearly 20% over sales the previous year. Shuttlelift is the other major supplier of industrial cranes in North America. Broderson and Shuttlelift together accounted for over 80% of the total industrial crane market in 2004.
Sales of cranes should generally continue improving in 2005 and 2006, but not much more than another 15% overall before we start to cycle back down. We know that bridges need repairing and replacing on the interstate highway system and more tall commercial buildings are going to be built. It just won’t be enough to push sales up to pre-2000 levels. Sales will probably get better as the decade closes out, but that is too far down the road for anyone to get excited about now.
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