The crawler cranes market in the lower capacity segment in India has been witnessing interesting developments in the past few months with the aggressive marketing strategies of manufacturers and distributors. With demand slowing in the heavy-lift applications, mainly in industrial applications, the market has been seeing a lull. But this has not deterred the crane manufacturers. They know that the spurt in infrastructure projects will help them bounce back – at least in the medium capacity lift applications.

According to a report, the Asia-Pacific crawler crane market is witnessing high adoption in the construction and mining sectors and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5 per cent from 2021 to 2024. The escalating infrastructure development projects in countries including India will favour the crawler crane market growth. The rental market is a major growth driver for crawler cranes in India. However, the current market scenario is stagnant for crawler cranes due to various reasons of a slowdown in the rental market due to low rental rates, the slowdown in the wind power sector which is considered as the major user of higher capacity crawler cranes, and the popularity of tyre-mounted cranes in heavy lift projects.

Market trends

Increasing utilisation of crawler cranes in the energy sector is anticipated to drive market growth. These machines offer heavy lifting operations at the nuclear and renewable energy sites and facilitate the operators in handling the materials efficiently. Several manufacturers have developed energy sector-specific machines that witness high demand. For instance, Manitowoc has launched a wind power crane, Grove GTK1100, which is used for wind turbine operations such as erection and construction.

Economic growth across the globe, especially in China, India, and Southeast Asian markets, has led to better infrastructure demand. Growing building and construction spending due to a rise in per capita disposable income along with enhanced infrastructure in Asia Pacific and Latin America will drive the crawler crane market.

High maintenance costs and initial investments are the major factors hindering the crawler crane market development. The high cost is discouraging several business manufacturers and OEMs from deploying high-end machines. Companies consider that investments for automated equipment must meet the global quality and manufacturing standards. In addition, the cranes are available on lease from the manufacturers at a lower price than the newer machines. Instead of procuring new equipment, several customers commonly prefer renting equipment, which is anticipated to hamper the market.

Demand or no demand, crane manufacturers are expected to come up with new models and innovations every so often. That is the thumb rule for equipment makers. For instance, Escorts Construction Equipment has lined up ambitious plans in terms of revenue on the back of increased momentum in the infrastructure sector.

In terms of crawler cranes, Action Construction Equipment has the 40T and the 75T crane in its product portfolio which it intends to take up to 160T in the near future. Manish Mathur, CEO – Cranes, Action Construction Equipment, said, “At ACE, our company DNA has always stemmed from developing value-for-money products from the customer standpoint, on the one hand. While still offering operator-friendly products, on the other. Robust R&D has always been a big part of our success story. The evolution of NextGen and multi-activity cranes range attributed the successors our team achieved in the last couple of years.”

He added, “We had recently launched the NX Series NextGen multi-activity cranes. These new NX Series cranes perform multiple tasks apart from crane operations thereby adding versatility and providing multi-purpose utilisation for the users. These types of multi-activity cranes with articulated steering are the first in the world and ACE has already applied for the necessary patents for the entire series.”

“All our BS-IV models in the 15-30 tonne range developed in last six and eight months and our multi-activity cranes – NXP 150, NX 360 and FP 210, which are now part of every major infrastructure project, speak volume about the success of our endeavours,” he added.

The company uses a boom assembly made out of high-strength steel with optimised shape that drastically reduces its self-weight yet enhances the lifting capability of the machine.

Sanjay Vasudeo, Director, Fuwa Cranes India, says, "The growing acceptability of Fuwa cranes in India has been essential due to the versatility of the cranes. FUWA 320T onwards is available with super lifts and boom and jib combinations. Fuwa 100 tonne are self-erecting cranes, which meet varied customer job site requirements along with increased uptime."

He mentions further, "sustained focus on R&D, appropriate pricing combined with right quality right after-sales service resulting in shorter payback period has been instrumental towards Fuwa's stable growth in India.” FUWA's crawler cranes are available between 35T to 1250T crawler cranes.

According to the company, Fuwa crawler cranes are equipped with engines from Cummins USA, hydraulics, valve bank, joysticks and winches procured from Rexroth – Germany, safe load indicators from Pat, Hirschman and swing bearings from Rothe Erde.

Vasudeo is an optimist on the business prospect of Fuwa crawler cranes in 2014. He says, "We are 70 of us all technocrats working for FUWA India constituting 36 service and 10 engineers looking after parts support all to ensure our cranes receive adequate support for higher uptime and consequently brand recall. We carry spares inventory exceeding $1.75million, comprising engines, hydraulic pumps, undercarriage parts, SLI's and its parts, anemometer's and its parts, solenoid coils, etc."

Deepak Garg, Managing Director, Sany India, says, "We will carry out engineering customisations in our crawler cranes, so as to make them attuned to Indian requirements. The improvisation will be supported by our dedicated research and development centre in Pune dovetailed by inputs from our global R&D centres in Germany, the US, and China.”

He elaborates, "Vital thrust will be given towards design optimisation. Modifications in the designs shall be done to meet the load lifting requirements of the jobs expected by customers in India and will be carried out in order to deliver the required lifting capacities at the needed radius. Modifications will be made so as to meet the load lifting/ chart requirements, both for the basic, auxiliary boom, and luffing arrangements. Customisation will also be made in the safety features based on the emerging requirements of the Indian power projects and upcoming modern refinery projects. The safety features required are much at par with global requirements."

Product support will be the key strategy for Sany to build up its brand in India so as to optimally support existing customers. Garg notes. He adds, "product support, ensuring availability of complete support solutions also will be the prime strategy to support our newer sales.

Recently, Sany added one more feather to their cap with the key handover of the country’s first 800-tonne lifting capacity crawler crane to Dwarkesh Transport Corporation.

SANY SCC8000A is an 800-tonne capacity crawler crane. It can be configured for boom length up to 168+12 metres for wind energy applications, capable of handling all wind turbine installation requirements in India. SANY India is the country’s largest crawler crane company. SANY Crawler Cranes features excellent reliability and the highest operational efficiency by offering technological innovations, maximum safety, stability, and flexibility in all kinds of operating environment.

More or less the crawler crane design has evolved. Over the period of time, crawler cranes have become lighter, transport-friendly (maximum individual component weight reduced by great extent) and with a lot of electronics and computer controls. The safety features are enhanced considerably. End-users prefer hydraulic crawler cranes over mechanical cranes. But mechanical cranes are equally in demand where free-fall operation is a must as they are more efficient than hydraulic crawler cranes.