May 21 - Manchester-based Ainscough Crane Hire has acquired six new heavy lift lattice boom crawler cranes to add to its fleet.
The company has bought two 500 tonne CC2500, two 600 tonne CC2800 and a 1250 tonne CC6800 cranes from Demag, and a 600 tonne LR1600-2 crane from Liebherr in what the company claims is the largest order of its kind ever placed by a UK company. The first to arrive was one of the 500 tonne CC2500s which has started working on its first contract. The last of these six crawlers is due to be delivered by the middle of next year.
Neil Partridge, Ainscough Crane Hire managing director says: "We feel that the demand for heavy crawler cranes is really taking off, particularly in the light of the demand from the energy sector - wind farms, power stations and the major related infrastructure projects. We think it is underserved at the moment and the response we have had has been excellent. We are just going to fill a gap created by the extra demand for these cranes, and we have a healthy order book already."
The heavy crawler cranes could spur the company to expand overseas as heavy capacity crawlers are widely used in one-off developments around the world: "Unlike general mobile cranes, where there is an oversupply not only in this country but around the world, there is an undersupply of these heavy crawler cranes," notes Partridge.
