Crane demand

With long order backlogs in the US, the market for used cranes and related transportation equipment has never been more vibrant. Demand for cranes that are less than 10 years old and in good working condition is very high, as are their prices.

“Right now, the market for used cranes is the best I've seen it in 10 years or more,” said Tom McCallum, director of industrial crane sales and crane remarketing for Manitowoc Corp. “Everyone is selling everything they can get their hands on.”

As a service to its dealers, Manitowoc maintains a website allowing dealers to post the used cranes they have for sale. The website offers information about used cranes and links prospective buyers with the dealers who have them for sale.

“As an example of demand, there were 305 machines on the website listed for sale a year ago. Today there are 49,” Mr McCallum said.

Mr McCallum said that while the market for new and used cranes has improved significantly over the past year or so, that it was right about the time of Con—Expo in Las Vegas in March that the market exploded.

Denis Roberts, used crane manager of Tadano America, is also impressed with the demand for used cranes. “The market for used cranes is good in the US, and actually, there's a good market for used cranes all over the world,” he said.

Mark Phillipi, asset manager for Terex Cranes, said that the main reason his company got involved in the used crane market is the high demand for new cranes. “Virtually every manufacturer is working off a backlog — there are a lot of new crane sales but not a lot of new crane deliveries,” he said. “Production is stretched out so far that availability is driving up the prices of used cranes. Most customers can't wait six months for a crane. So they start looking for something used.”