26.04.2011

Terex appoints Coast Crane

Terex Cranes has appointed Seattle based Coast Crane Company to distribute its entire crane product line in the states of Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Montana as well as the provinces of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory in Canada and Guam and the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Coast Crane now part of Essex Rental operates from 14 facilities on the West Coast of North America, Alaska, Hawaii and Guam.

As part of the agreement Coast ordered 20 cranes with a combined value of over $15 million for its rental fleet and sales inventory. The order includes a mix of Rough Terrain cranes, ranging from 55 ton to 130 ton capacity, as well as crawler cranes up to 165 tons capacity.

Essex chief executive Ron Schad said: “Our new relationship with Terex Cranes presents significant opportunities for both our businesses. The ability to rent Terex cranes through both Coast Crane and Essex Crane will significantly enhance our opportunities to provide our customers with the broad range of lifting solutions they need. In the future, Essex will look for opportunities to expand its crawler crane fleet with the full line of Terex cranes.”
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Terex CEO Ron Defeo (L) with Ron Shad sealing the deal ..and the order

Frank Bardonaro managing director of Terex Cranes in the Americas, added: “The addition of Terex cranes will provide Essex Crane and Coast Crane customers with the most complete line of lifting solutions in the USA. This new contract signals the outset of great opportunities for growing our business throughout North America. I think that we can say that we share the same excitement as Essex about the future prospects of our new partnership.”

Coast Crane which went through a Chapter 11 process in 2010 and was acquired by Essex at the end of the year, was until February the Grove and Manitowoc distributor for these territories – it still handles Potain and has the right to purchase Grove and Manitowoc equipment and parts on dealer terms. Since then it has taken on the distribution of Tadano and Manitex to which it now adds Terex.

Vertikal Comment

Coast Crane now has access on distributor terms to all of the main North American built crane brands apart - possibly -from Link Belt. It can certainly offer its customers a wide choice of different products, but also has an increasing number of product conflicts.

What boom truck does it recommend to a buyer? Manitex, Tadano or Terex? The same applies to Rough Terrain and truck cranes. And if all else fails it can still source Manitowoc crane group products.

While Coast will gain negotiating strength with the crane manufacturers, it may find that it has lost some of the manufacturer loyalty and territory protection that it was used to for many years?

But then again - times they are a changing.