Endorsing its position as one of the world’s leading producers of modern crawler cranes, Japanese manufacturer Kobelco Cranes has expanded its range with new models and announced record worldwide sales, having produced more than 700 cranes last year with a $460 million-plus sales value, an increase of 38 per cent over the previous year.

Kobelco cranes are also making a mark in Middle Eastern countries with the Athens-based international contracting group Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCIC) having taken delivery earlier this year of its 100th Kobelco crawler crane in just two years. The latest machines to be delivered are two of the new 250-tonne capacity CKE2500-2 model, which are working on an oil pipeline job at Ras Laffan in Qatar.
CCIC, a $500-million company involved major engineering contracting work, has a fleet of mobile equipment including some 12,000 different items of plant, from small generators to large cranes, transporters, pipe-layers and earthmovers.
“There is no doubt that there is a booming demand for modern-day crawler cranes, thanks to their versatility, excellent lifting duties and long working life,” says Jos Verhulst, sales and marketing manager of Kobelco Cranes. “Their user-friendliness, easy transportation and fast-to-assemble features, and overall performance and cost-effectiveness make them ideal for both small and large-scale projects.”
One of Kobelco’s new models is the 550-tonne capacity Super Lift SL6000 crawler crane which made its world debut at the bauma trade show – the world’s largest exhibition for the building and construction industry, which took place last April in Munich in Germany.
Preliminary details of another new model, the 110-tonne-capacity CKE1100 crawler, which will become available in 2008, were also released.
The SL6000 crawler crane is highly adaptable for the increasing range of heavy-duty jobs in large-scale oil, gas and energy-related projects, and infrastructure installations. Available in three configurations of standard, heavy-lift and super heavy-lift, the SL6000 offers a maximum possible luffing jib combination (in SHL configuration) of an 84-m main boom with an 84-m jib, giving an impressive total boom length of 170 m, says Verhulst.
It also features Kobelco’s renowned ‘unit assembly system’ which optimises the transportation elements (with no individual unit heavier than 45 tonnes or wider than 3 m), complying with worldwide transport regulations and greatly facilitating assembly on site, he adds.
The first two units of the new crane have been sold to leading Scotland-based international heavy-lift contractor Weldex.
“With many more units of this exceptionally well-specified crawler crane having already been ordered by heavy-lift specialists around the world, the SL6000 looks destined to become the best-selling crane in the 500 to 600-tonne class,” Verhulst comments.

Custom-build
Kobelco’s crawler cranes are available in a broad range of lifting capacities for applications in a wide variety of fields, including heavy-duty foundation work.
An important feature of Kobelco’s product and market development strategy is to provide customers with as much versatility and choice as possible, so as well as configuring the cranes for optimised, easy transportation, and easy build-up on site, a ‘custom-built’ element is incorporated into new models such as the 250-tonne class-leading CKE2500-2.
“This feature provides a number of already engineered and therefore readily available, optional build specifications, to meet the demand from customers for special adaptations in applications such as wind-farm development, offshore, barge and port operations and in petrochemical complexes where special operating features such as narrow-track, variable track-width, emergency back-up systems, man-riding, special painting and high-capacity fixed jibs are required,” he explains.
“As the largest supplier of crawler cranes worldwide, with a strong presence in all major markets, we listen carefully to customers and their needs, enabling us to respond with fresh and innovative solutions, and to continually open up new market opportunities,” concludes Verhulst.