International debut for XCMG’s XGC88000

Chinese crane manufacturer XCMG has used its 4000 tonne capacity class XGC88000 crawler crane for its first international job. The 88,000 tonne-metre rated crane was used to lift a washing tower, weighing 1,926 tonnes, in Jubail Industrial Zone, Dammam, Saudi Arabia on 24 October, 2019.

The tower measured 101.1 metres high and 8.6 metres in diameter. The XGC88000 crawler lifted the tower with its main boom at 102 metres and its auxiliary boom at 27 metres. A 1,250 tonne capacity crane was used for tailing duties.

According to XCMG, it took 30 days for the crane to be transported via boat from China to Saudi Arabia. On arrival XCMG provided a team of technicians and service engineers who worked with staff from Chinese oil and gas enterprise Sinopec (China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation), which commissioned XCMG for the project, to assemble the crane and conduct tests.

XCMG said the sand and high temperatures encountered in the desert did not pose any problems for the crane. The heavy lift was carried out over a time frame of around five hours.

The crane will be used twice more on this project, to lift two reactors weighing 1,312 tonnes, before working on related projects for the Saudi National Natural Gas Company and at an oil refinery project in Oman.

According to XCMG, since the crane’s launch in 2013 it has travelled over 30,000 kilometres and participated in 11 large projects in eight provinces across China where it has successfully completed 150 lifts with a combined total weight of more than 120,000 tonnes.