15.01.2013

More counterfeit Tadanos

We have had correspondence from a reader in China who, while looking to buy a used Tadano truck crane, found that it was a locally assembled foregery. It may have been assembled from a combination of used frames and spare parts belonging to a number of different and unrelated cranes.
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Another view of the fake crane

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The fake Tadano serial number plate/stamp

The potential buyer was alerted to the risk of fake Tadano cranes by a number of articles on the subject that we carried in 2009 and 2011. The crane he was looking to buy was reportedly a 2010 Tadano TG1000E with an asking price of $100,000.

Click here to see: More counterfeit cranes from December 2009 – linked to two previous reports. Also see a June 2011 report: on a poor counterfeit of a Demag AC500-2.

We informed the reader that we believed it to be a fake and asked Tadano distributor Cranes UK to give us an opinion and to check the serial number a comprehensive response confirmed its counterfeit status. And included a copy of a letter from 2009 to customers which is published below.
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A fake LMI - Tadano does not fit dial-in knobs

In the meantime we found 21 Tadano TG1000E's for sale on the website MachineryZone.eu, all of them located in China.

Our reader went back to the seller who then admitted that it was not a geunine Tadano product and offered to cut the price to $70,000. Our reader declined, his letters will be published in full in the February issue of Cranes & Access.
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The fake model number decal

The following is a June 2009 letter from Tadano to customers:

"Matters to be attended to concerning counterfeit Tadano cranes"

"First of all, we like to express our many thanks for your continued patronage of our product in your market. Now, concerning the subject matter, we inform you that as you may know, in recent years, not a few number of counterfeit Tadano products have been appearing on the market worldwide."

"They are mostly of a mix-and-match type being made up of parts of used Tadano machines and those of other manufactures and sold as being used Tadano products."

"Characteristics of the fake Tadano cranes which have so far been identified are (1) models not corresponding to our existing ones (ex: TL-255E, TG-550E) (2) Attachment of a protuberance like dials/knobs on the AML inside the crane cab (No dials are used in our products.) (3) Fitting of a logo mark similar to ours. However, the characteristics of counterfeit Tadano cranes will not be limited to the above only since there remains always a possibility that they may be changed or built a new as the time passes."

"As the imitation machines have not met our quality safety standards, there is concern that they may consequently lead to structural defects or operational malfunctions resulting in serious accidents."

"We would advise you never to use such fake cranes for your safety sake too. Besides, in the event of the occurrence of any defects, malfunctions or accidents arising out of, or in connection with, the use of such counterfeit Tadano products, please note that we will take no responsibility in any case for said defects, malfunctions or accidents as well as for any consequences thereof."

"For your information, if we find manufacturers of counterfeit Tadano cranes or their distributors, we will take strong action against them including legal sanctions in addition to adopting necessary measures in concert with our industrial group concerned."

"Allow us to ask you, once again, to be very careful of such imitation machines when purchasing used Tadano cranes. Should there be any worries or obscure points, please contact your authorized Tadano distributor."