Sleek Risers

Tower crane manufacturers are increasingly focusing their product development firepower on new flat-tops and luffing jib tower cranes, in line with market demand.

Today, many crane manufacturers are moving away from the classical hammerhead tower cranes and focusing their range on flat-tops and luffing tower cranes, according to a range of tower crane and rental company executives. A flat-top crane has a number of significant advantages over a hammerhead crane, including being faster and simpler to erect. In operation, when working on a site with a height restrictions, such as near an airport, if the height limit is 50 metres, a flat-top is able to achieve a hook height of 47-48m while complying with the restriction, while a hammerhead is only able to achieve a hook height of around 40m, given that the cat’s head section adds around 10m of height. If both types of cranes are needed to achieve the same hook height, a hammerhead crane is taller and may require a more expensive mobile crane for erection.

Known as a flat-top specialist, along with its offering of luffing cranes, Comansa finds itself in a good position to meet market demand. The company’s flat-tops are easier to erect compared to other manufacturers and cranes with pendant lines, says Javier Militino, Marketing Manager for the Spanish manufacturer.

“Comansa offers the possibility to erect jib module by jib module, reducing erection weights and parts that are easier to handle,” he says. He explains that its flat-tops are less complicated when site conditions are difficult or access is limited, such as for a city-centre site. “The jib can be erected in several jib sections one after the other, direct from the truck, instead of being placed on ground, preassembled and then lifted and placed in one piece, which makes the erection fast, simple and economic.”

Other general advantages of a flat-top include overlapping of cranes with different heights, as well as less stress on the slewing part of the crane and longer life expectancy, as forces are always acting in one direction, he says.

For Comansa, the split between rental company buyers and end user purchasers in the Middle East is around 75:25, says Militino. There are differences between the cranes bought to be rented out and those bought by contractors, he explains.

“Rental houses plan their purchases as per utilisation rate and tend to buy a few standard models to satisfy the most common demand. Meanwhile, contractors – especially for civil works – request big cranes that rental houses normally do not have.”

He also points out that rental prices for large, specialist cranes are often high, and the construction projects that need them are typically of long duration. The means the cost-effective option for contractors is to purchase a crane, perhaps with the option to sell it back to the manufacturer at the end of the project.

Tower sites

With many of the world’s tallest buildings constructed in the GCC, luffing cranes are a natural choice, as they are typically the best lifting solution for a tall tower site. Terex’s tower crane range is mainly focused on flat-top and luffing jib cranes. Popular models in the GCC include the CTL 180, CTL 260, CTL 430 and CTL 630 luffing jib cranes, and the CTT 332, a flat-top tower crane with maximum capacity of 16 tonnes, max jib length of 75m and 3t max capacity at tip.

“Customers appreciate the Terex product offering - the strength of tower masts that give a competitive combination between investment and free standing heights, the strong load charts and the overall quality that helps minimise cranes’ downtime,” says Rashad Haweeleh, Area Sales Manager – Middle East at Terex Cranes. “We offer a European product that gives the right support and the best return of investment to the most versatile projects.”

The company’s application engineering team is always available to work on challenging request in each construction phase, says Haweeleh. “From the very beginning, where we discuss together with our partners the best job-site set-up, to the dismantling of the crane, it is a passionate and dedicated team focused on results but also believing in great business relationships.”

The Terex Cranes range is notable for its heavy-duty luffers. The CTL 630B-16 has a 6.7t max lift at its tip, with a max jib length of 65m and maximum lift capacity of 32t, making it a versatile crane for high-rise projects where heavy lifts are required.

Last year, Terex launched its T-Link telematics system for both tower and mobile cranes. Based on cloud architecture and developed through collaboration with customers, it’s designed to provide accurate and comprehensive information across all fleet sizes. “It increases the efficiency of the fleet and reduces costs; managers can centrally gather a wide range of real-time data and run a variety of analyses to assess their fleet’s performance, and preventive maintenance processes,” says Haweeleh.

A Zoomlion flat-top crane in operation in Kuwait.

Impressive sales run

Zoomlion is the largest Chinese manufacturer of tower cranes, with sales of around $1.43bn worldwide in 2019. The company claims to have had the largest market share in the global tower crane market since 2009, though many of its sales are in the huge Chinese domestic market, where it is the market leader. The company was founded in 1992.

Zoomlion’s cranes have been used in the GCC for many years; it began selling them here in 2005, says Ren Jet, Deputy Manager – Middle East, Africa & South Asia – Tower Cranes at Zoomlion, adding that in that time the quality and sophistication of the tower cranes have improved markedly. The Zoomlion range encompasses flat-tops, luffing jib and hammerhead tower cranes, and Jet notes that individual GCC markets typically have distinct crane preferences. The firm’s main markets are the UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

In Kuwait, its top-selling crane is the T7020-12, a 12t topless crane with a 70m jib and 2t max liftweight at the tip. In Saudi, where there is demand for heavier lift-weights, it’s a 16t flat-top, the T7530-16.

In Dubai and the UAE, Zoomlion’s luffing jib crane range is popular, including the L250-20. The crane has a maximum jib length of 60m and a minimum jib length of 30m (jib length under different assembling modes can decrease progressively by 5m). Its hoisting capacity at jib tip is 2.71t, with maximum lift weight of 20t and maximum lifting moment of 250 t/m. The company’s 10t and 8t luffing jib cranes are also widely used, says Jet.