Maxim tops 2026 ACT100 with 719,682-ton fleet index

More than 400,000 tons clear at the top

The ACT100, compiled by American Cranes & Transport, ranks North American crane owners by adding together the maximum rated capacities, in US tons, of every mobile and crawler crane in a fleet. For 2026 Maxim returned an index of 719,682, retaining the position it has held since the list first appeared. According to the magazine, the margin over the second-placed company is more than 400,000 tons.

The company also appeared in four of ACT’s supporting categories. It placed second for the largest mobile fleet with 1,245 units and second for the largest crawler fleet with 403 units, while its 1,648 total units put it third on the largest-fleet-size table. A single machine — the 2,535 US ton Manitowoc 31000 crawler — earned Maxim seventh place on the largest cranes list.

Fourth in the world by load moment

On the 2026 IC100, published by International Cranes and Specialized Transport, Maxim ranked fourth worldwide. That list uses a different yardstick: the combined load moment of a company’s fleet expressed in tonne-metres. Maxim’s total came to 1,540,254 tonne-metres.

The two indices measure related but distinct things — raw lifting capacity in the ACT100, reach-weighted capability in the IC100 — which is why crane owners can sit at very different points on each table.

Rental volume up 7.8 per cent

A third ranking, the Rental Equipment Register’s RER100, places Maxim eighth among North American rental businesses measured by rental volume. RER recorded a 7.8 per cent year-on-year increase in the company’s rental volume. Unlike the general rental firms that dominate the upper reaches of that list, Maxim’s revenue comes almost entirely from heavy lifting equipment: all-terrain, rough terrain, crawler, tower and hydraulic truck cranes, plus boom trucks and carry decks.

Maxim links the placings to a fleet renewal programme it has been running since 2022 and to a coast-to-coast branch network serving commercial building, industrial and infrastructure customers. The company describes the three lists as measures of size, capacity and volume rather than of capability, and points to the operators, engineering staff and service network behind the iron as the part customers actually buy.

For the wider market, the numbers are a useful gauge of how much heavy lifting capacity is parked in one place in North America. A single fleet index of more than 719,000 US tons, held more than 400,000 tons clear of the next company, says as much about the fragmentation of the rest of the sector as it does about Maxim.

Source: Maxim Crane Works — Photos: Maxim Crane Works