06.02.2015

More Kobelco cranes for GH Johnson

UK rental company GH Johnson Crane Hire has purchased two new 80 tonne Kobelco CKE800G crawler cranes.

This latest order takes the company’s fleet of Kobelco crawler cranes to 18, with five units delivered over the past 12 months including three 135 tonne CKE1350G and two 110 tonne CKE1100G cranes. The two new 80 tonners will arrive in April, following an inspection at the factory in Japan this month.

GH Johnson’s managing director Paul Johnson said: “In total, we will have upwards of 70,000 hours experience with Kobelco crawler cranes and have never had a serious breakdown or mechanical fault. This reliability is one of the main reasons we have stuck with Kobelco for our new cranes. We also get an excellent service in the UK and we have been able to develop a good relationship with all of their people.”

“At the moment, we have several Kobelco Cranes working on both Crossrail tunnelling work and the National Grid London network upgrade and a couple of others working on water treatment and flood prevention jobs. Demand is extremely strong, with the fleet busy on jobs all over the country, on projects from hotels, schools, bridges, tunnels, flood prevention works and shaft construction.”
Please register to see all images

A Kobelco CKE1350G on site in Beckton, East London rigged with 30m of main boom, lifting 55 tonnes

Kobelco claims to be the first crawler crane manufacturer to fit engines compliant with European Union Stage IIIB (Tier 4i) requirements. All G-series cranes are fitted with Diesel Particulate Filters and exhaust gas cleaning systems to minimise harmful emissions such as particulate matter and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx). At the same time the company installed additional fuel saving measures such as the G-series winch which enables the line to be raised at high speed without raising the engine speed, while maximum engine speed is limited by controlling pump capacity.

Mark Evans, sales manager for Kobelco Cranes Europe added:“In 2014 demand for our machines increased significantly over 2013, and during the first quarter of 2015 we are on track to outperform last year by some margin.”