Crawlers race ahead
On the back of massive investments in railways and metros, crawler cranes are doing very well and expect to continue to see high demand.

“We have seen significant demand in the metro and rail sectors for foundation equipment and smaller capacity crawler cranes,” said a spokesperson from Liebherr India. “With $ 750 billion in investments in railway infrastructure in the next two to three years, the rail sector will be a key construction equipment demand driver. So, in general, our focus will be on metros and railways irrespective of our product launches. Some refineries will soon expand and there, too, we see growth in demand for cranes.”


“Currently, the railways, metros as well as high-speed railways are our focus areas where we are seeing good demand for 45-tonne to 150-tonne crawler cranes,” shares Sakthikumar VG, Managing Director, Schwing Stetter (India). “Major bridges and ports are other infrastructure sectors where we have delivered a number of crawler cranes and deployed after-sales support resources. The Government’s planned expenditure on infrastructure and announcements of new projects make us optimistic about a good pace of execution and resultant demand for equipment.”

Feature fest

Rising demand is encouraging R&D in crawlers and the launch of new models and features.

“We launched a new 100-tonne crawler crane, the XGC100A, with stronger load charts, and based on the demand from existing customers, a 45-tonne crawler crane, the XGC45,” says Sakthikumar. “Schwing Stetter XCMG has led the way in offering the latest features that assist in improving productivity and reducing operating cost. We were the first to offer a box design with a mast in the smaller tonnage 150-tonne crawler crane class. We also offer free fall functionality for foundation works and so on.”


Liebherr invested € 512 million in R&D last year, mostly to develop new products. “A strong focus on R&D has given Liebherr the world’s first battery-powered crawler cranes, the LR 1250.1 unplugged and the LR 1200.1 unplugged, and Liebherr’s first fully electric truck mixers, the ETM 1005 and the ETM 1205,” shares the spokesperson from Liebherr.

Liebherr launched the LR 1400 SX, a new 400-tonne capacity crawler crane globally in November 2021. This new model manufactured in Austria can be assembled with a remote control in a short time. It can adjust its tracks for easy steering in constricted spaces and has four crawler drives to assist smooth operations. A gradient travel aid allows for safe travel on inclinations and warns the operator before entering an unsafe zone. To reduce the ground pressure up to 52 per cent, additional plates are provided as an option.

Indeed, new options and features are something to look forward to.