In this world of Trumponomics, fake news and artificial intelligence it’s getting hard to work out what to believe any more, but the headline above is a little-known or understood fact, says Deane Manley, the Chairman of the NZ Crane Association.
In 1975 a small group of Crane owners got together and formed the Power Crane Association of New Zealand to represent the interests of crane owners.
In 2006 the PCA changed its name to the Crane Association of New Zealand. CANZ currently has over 250 members who either own, operate, service, sell, lease or otherwise have an interest in the crane sector.
Founding members of the PCA were Diack Bros; McIntosh Bros Cranes; Titan Plant Services; Waikato Crane Services; A.V. Martyn & Co (1968); B Dinan; Roebuck Construction Co; CR Taylor; Jack Tidd-Ross Todd; Kidson Construction; Thelin Construction; Hawkins Construction; C Lund & Sons; Mahy Crane Hire; Drury Crane Hire; McConnell Dowell Constructors; Fletcher Industries; and UDC Finance.
These businesses have formed the backbone of the industry’s executive council over 50 years, with volunteers advocating for safety, training, legal, technical and compliance issues.
Many of the founding member businesses are still actively involved in the leadership of the association with current council members from Downers/Hawkins, Fletchers and, of course, Titan Cranes, who in my recollection has been continuously represented on council since the beginning when founder Max Whiley (RIP) hosted the first meeting.
On the 16-18 July, CANZ will celebrate its 50th Conference back where it all started in Wellington. Kicking off with the “Originals” meet and greet function, we will also host the various Life Members and founding member companies with a special dinner at Bellamy’s.
Most people outside our circles – and even some of the crane spotters among us – tend to think of cranes as the tower cranes they see on the city skyline, or, given the current economic climate, lying unused in the long grass.
Our Crane Association represents all manners of cranes, and the businesses associated with them. The largest population of cranes are the ones most people don’t see, the gantry cranes in virtually every engineering workshop or manufacturing plant across all manner of industry.
Next up would be the knuckle boom cranes that most folk think of as Hiab’s that are fitted to flat deck trucks and used to deliver all sorts of loads such as building materials, frames, portable buildings, spa pools etc.
The most versatile cranes are the ones that travel on the road, or around sites, known as hydraulic mobile cranes. Ranging in size from two-axle around town city cranes, to eight axle all-terrain cranes with lifting capacities between six and 450 tonnes. There are many machines around our country that drive legally down the road that will setup and lift well over 100 metres high. Most, if not all, tower cranes are assembled and disassembled with a hydraulic mobile crane.
Crawler cranes are what I reckon are the next most populous lifting machines in New Zealand. On a track base, hence the ‘crawler’ name, these machines are mostly lattice boom cranes used on medium-to-longer-term projects in construction, infrastructure and industrial plants. These crawler cranes have a large range in capacity and boom configurations. Here, crawler cranes are bookended in capacity by hybrid crawler/hydraulic boom machines ranging from two tonne to 1200 tonne capacity machines.
Ironically, the type of crane most non-crane people think of – the tower crane – is actually the least common here and is mainly used for traditional construction work.
There is not a single area of economic activity in this country that isn’t at some stage dependent on a crane of some sort for its actual existence in the first place, it’s growth or success.
The obvious example proving this statement is that there isn’t any manufacturing facility, processing plant, power station, freight hub, or port operation that wasn’t originally built by cranes and relies upon cranes every day to deliver whatever thing it is that makes money.
There isn’t a single MRI or scanning machine that hasn’t had to have been lifted at some stage by a crane before it could be used to save lives.
Taylor Swift did not come to New Zealand because the mobile cranes she needed to construct the set for her concerts weren’t available at the times she needed them.
The America’s Cup, Sail GP and other marquee yacht races don’t happen without cranes.
Crypto trading, drop shipping, E-commerce, social media influencing, working from home and other activities dependent on the cloud are all dependent on cranes. Cranes to not only build the physical infrastructure but maintain windfarms and other power generation as well as servicing and replacing the massive air conditioning requirements of data centres.
A recent survey by an International Investment Advisory Agency calculated that the 2024 economic contribution to this country from our crane industry is a staggering $425 billion. Coincidentally, this also happened to be same as our total Gross Domestic Product.
In the interests of full disclosure, I made that last paragraph up to grab your attention. Oh, and the Taylor Swift bit.
Or did I?
See you at our 50th conference 16-18 July in Wellington.
Parting words from Jeremy Sole- a final column