06.01.2009
Counterfeit cranes?
We have received a bulletin from the Middle East alerting buyers to beware of counterfeit Tadano truck cranes.
The bulletin concerns a number of used cranes that have apparently been exported from China to the Middle East via Jebel Ali, that to a casual eye look like genuine Tadano cranes. We are told that a “considerable number of fake Tadano’s” have already been imported into the region.
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A counterfeit Tadano TG550E
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A genuine Tadano GT550EX
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The same crane from the front
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Another counterfeit crane?
Tadano does have a manufacturing facility in China, which produces cranes for the local market. The counterfeit cranes are not manufactured in this facility nor in any other Tadano plant. So far we have not received any definitive information on exactly who has been producing them.
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A counterfeit Tadano TG500E look at the boom
We are told that whoever it is has even used Tadano serial numbers and corresponding chassis numbers on some of the cranes. So simply checking the serial number is not enough to confirm that the crane is genuine. A physical inspection or careful evaluation of photographs along with a serial number verification is required for a proper authentication.
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A genuine Tadano serial number plate
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A counterfeit serial number plate
Tell-tell signs include printed rather than embossed serial number plates, decals that are not quite correct, and in some cases simply on the wrong crane. Some of the claimed counterfeits use Tadano’s distinctive boom shape and construction making it hard to believe that they are all counterfeit.
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A page from the bulletin from Tadano's Middle East office
If you have any further information on this apparent scam we would be pleased to hear from you,
Vertikal Comment
Normally it is grey market cranes or copies of small access platforms or stolen designs that are the issue of such bulletins. To come across apparent forgeries with such large and complex pieces if equipment is peculiar to say the least.
It is one thing for a company to place Tadano decals on cheap locally built Chinese cranes but to pass off with forged serial number plates is another issue entirely. We are not sure that we have the full story here, and are publishing in order to both draw attention to the matter, warn buyers to be alert and perhaps to stimulate more information input on the matter
Daniel Clark
I can vouch for the above. I am part of a structural steel fabricator in New Zealand and our recent efforts to get verification of cranes coming from Shanghai has absolutely astonished me. We have contacted at least 5 seperate large crane and equipment companies in Shanghai and upon getting serial numbers we have had every single crane offered turn out to be fraudulent.
All of th suppliers offered serial numbers and nearly all were Tadano numbers, but for incorrect and out of service cranes.
Can anyone tell me- I suspect that Tadano in Japan have shutdown factories in China, and that in fact these cranes are genuine articles, but as the partnership between the Tadano Company and these factories is now defunct they have no way to provide official numbers.
Some of these cranes are identical to the last detail to the genuine models, no exceptions, it seems unbelieveable that they are not made by someone who originally made genuine Tadano Cranes.