Demand for crawlers in the UK rising says Kobelco Cranes Europe Ltd as it reveals new orders
Kobelco Cranes Europe Ltd has sold two new CKE800G crawler cranes to leading UK rental company GH Johnson Crane Hire. Purchasing the machines, which have an 80t capacity at 3m, will boost the hire firm’s growing fleet of Kobelco crawler cranes to 18 units. In the last 12 months alone GH Johnson took delivery of five new CKE-G series machines, including three CKE1350G crawlers and two CKE1100G cranes. The latest additions to the fleet will arrive in April, following an inspection in February by GH Johnson at the manufacturing facility in Kobe, Japan.
“In total, we will have upwards of 70,000 hours experience with Kobelco crawler cranes and have never had a serious breakdown or mechanical fault,” says GH Johnson Crane Hire Ltd managing director Paul Johnson. “This reliability is one of the main reasons we have stuck with Kobelco for our new cranes. We also get an excellent service from Kobelco in the UK and we have been able to develop a good relationship with all of their people.”
Demand for the Kobelco crawler cranes is extremely strong says the rental firm which has seen its growing fleet busy on jobs all over the country working on projects from hotels, schools and sports stadia; to bridges, tunnels, flood prevention works and shaft construction. “At the moment, we have several Kobelco Cranes working on both the Crossrail tunneling work and the National Grid London network upgrade and a couple of others working on water treatment and flood prevention jobs,” says Paul Johnson.
Kobelco was the first manufacturer to fit its crawler cranes with low emission engines that are compliant with European Union Stage IIIB (Tier 4i) requirements. To achieve this all of the G-series crane engines are fitted with Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) and exhaust gas cleaning systems to minimize harmful emissions such as particulate matter and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx).
At the same time the company has also fitted the cranes with extra fuel saving measures such as the G-winch which enables the line to be raised at high speed without raising the engine speed; and the G-engine which limits maximum engine speed by controlling pump capacity.
These green credentials and the incredible reliability of the cranes is leading to major growth for Kobelco Cranes Europe Ltd. “In 2014 demand for our machines increased significantly over 2013 and during the first quarter of 2015 we are on track to outperform the same period last year by some margin,” said Kobelco Cranes Europe Ltd Sales Manager Mark Evans.
