Construction World February 2018

CRANAGE & HEAVY LIFTING

Well set for LIFTING PROJECT FOCUS After a four year investment programme in excess of R600-million, Johnson Crane Hire now commands a fleet more than 250 cranes and is well advanced in becoming South Africa’s leading project- oriented lifting solutions provider.

seems the market is always asking for more or a greater lift capacity. We have therefore focused on boosting our fleet at the top end of the capacity over the past 18 months.” Among the larger acquisitions has been the 750 tonne Liebherr all-terrain crane, which is complementing the hydraulic side of the fleet. The fleet size and diversity provides considerable flexibility to deal with customers’ requirements, he says, as the company has the advantage of offering substantial depth within the fleet and being able to supply more than one crane in each capacity range. The bold acquisition strategy has continued despite some concerns about aspects of the local market remaining quite depressed, particularly in the mining and petrochemical sectors. “On the positive side, a lot of the work we do is around the maintenance work of plants, and fortunately that continues,” says Yaman. “These operations will still shut down for turnaround projects and that happens on a regular basis. We do expect better times

A ccording to Johnson Crane Hire Sales Executive Peter Yaman, the company has been steadily enhancing its project offering to supplement the traditional model of supplying rental cranes. “Our focus has always been to get involved at a very early point in a customer’s project, and contributing actively in terms of planning and engineering,” says Yaman. “We see our role as including project management, and helping customers formulate solutions. And we then also look to source the equipment that may be required in their projects, if not currently available in our fleet.” To accomplish this, the company’s new project division is focusing on heavy capacity lattice boom type projects, including wind farm projects and large

infrastructure projects. These tend to need heavy capacity equipment, as well as jack-and-slide and other alternative lifting technologies. The investment made in recent years is certainly supporting these strategic moves, with Johnson Crane Hire now South Africa’s largest crane fleet owner. Its heavy lift cranes are some of the largest available in the country, ranging from lattice boom crawler cranes with capacity ranging from 100 to 750 tonnes, as well as a 750 tonne lattice boom truck-mounted crane – ideal for the wind energy sector and other applications, together with a 750 tonne all terrain telescopic crane. Yaman highlights the market’s continual demand for larger cranes: “Regardless of the capacity of the cranes you have, it

A Johnson Crane Hire 100 t hydraulic boom crawler crane.

28

CONSTRUCTION WORLD FEBRUARY 2018