A large, defunct crane company is gearing up for a second act. Pompano Beach, Fla.-based General Crane USA’s liquidation plan received final court approval on Dec. 17. Newly formed Allegiance Crane & Equipment LLC, Pompano Beach, Fla., paid $40 million for properties and equipment. The firm secured financial backing from Southlake, Texas-based Prophet Equity. General Crane managing partner James A. Robertson is now president of Allegiance Crane & Equipment. The company expanded aggressively during the building boom, spending $65 million for new equipment between 2006 and 2007 while expanding into new markets. As the economy tanked and credit lines evaporated,
JLG Industries Inc. will display a new 150-ft-tall boom lift at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2011, the biggest construction event of the year, held on March 22-26 in Las Vegas. The lift replaces an older model that was cumbersome to deploy on jobs needing high-reach access. Photo: Courtesy of JLG Despite its 150-ft height, JLG’s newest lift can retract to a compact size for highway transport. Only a weight permit is needed. Photo: Courtesy of JLG Model 1500SJ is the tallest self-propelled aerial work platform that can be trailered without several permits, says JLG, which is taking orders for delivery around the time
Navistar International Corp. will be rolling into 2011 offering heavy trucks equipped only with Navistar power—a move that dealers, truckers and investors will be watching closely in a market that is expected to see 50% to 60% gains in sales next year. Photo: Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Jim Hebe, Navistar senior vice president, discusses the MaxxForce engine at the 2009 World of Concrete. The Warrenville, Ill.-based manufacturer will also be the only truck maker not using selective-catalytic reduction (SCR), a clean-air technology that requires drivers to fill up a tank of urea periodically to neutralize nitrogen-oxides (NOx) in the
Do you still hear the sound of gears grinding on the jobsite? It soon may be a thing of the past. A trucker’s old friends—the shifter and clutch pedal—are headed toward extinction as drivers discover the benefits of automatic transmissions. Photo: Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Mack sales department expected to sell 50 automatic transmissions this year but sold 500. Related Links: Shifting Gears: Heavy Truckers Say Goodbye to the Stick Although more than 80% of domestic heavy-duty trucks are still sold with a manual transmission, experts like David Stahl, sales manager for Pittsburgh-based dealer TransEdge Truck Centers, think it
Photo: Terex Corp. Terex Corp. says it plans to appeal a recent jury verdict in a federal patent case against Finland-based Metso Corp. in the eastern district of New York. The jury in early December decided that Westport, Conn.-based Terex, since 2000, has violated a Metso patent in using a laterally folding conveyor on certain Chieftain rock-screening plants manufactured under the Powerscreen brand name and costing between $150,000 and $300,000. The design allows the machine to fold up for convenient transportation from site to site. The court awarded Metso about $16 million in damages. If Terex appeals as planned, the
Fleet managers and professional contractors have a variety of choices when its time to replace their aging vehicles. Until recently, the Ford Transit Connect Electric utility van was not among them. Photo: Thom Blackett For ENR The Transit Connect Electric will cost some greenbacks for firms wanting to go green. Its base price is $57,400—before adding in a charging station and taking out tax incentives. Photo: Courtesy of Ford Motor Co. Developed by Ford and Azure Dynamics, the plug-in electric van promises zero emissions and lower operating costs, points being evaluated by early adopters including AT&T, the New York Power
Photo: Courtesy Bauma China 2010 China has become the new power market for heavy iron, digging into the traditional construction markets of Japan, Europe and the U.S. Likewise, last month’s Bauma China expo put Shanghai on the map as a major destination for construction equipment buyers. The biennial expo, held Nov. 23-26, attracted 150,000 people from 165 countries—more than North America’s last CONEXPO-CON/AGG show held in Las Vegas in 2008—and packed in nearly 2,000 vendors covering 2.5 million sq ft. Machine production recently has been moving this way. From 2006 to 2009, China took in 42% of the world’s crawler-tractors,
Every year, Arne Ruud has between $6 million and $10 million to spend on new construction machinery. The corporate equipment manager for Broomfield, Colo.-based Guy F. Atkinson Construction LLC says, next year, he probably will spend most of his budget, which is an unusual move in this time of thrift. Photo: Tudor Van Hampton For ENR When the recession hit in 2008, contractors scaled back dramatically on fleet spending. “In some of our areas the markets have just disintegrated,” Ruud explains. “That doesn’t give you a lot of confidence to go out and buy new iron.” Many have been fixing
IronPlanet.com has set a new record for the highest-priced item sold at one of its virtual auctions. A 2008 Gomaco GHP-2800 slipform paver belonging to transportation contractor John Carlo Inc., Clinton Township, Mich., sold to an undisclosed Louisiana buyer for $930,000 at the Oct. 21 auction, which drew 13,500 bidders from 140 countries spending a total $7.2 million. John Carlo used the auction to liquidate its fleets in Michigan and Florida. “Everything we sold at IronPlanet, including the paver, exceeded our expectations,” says Fred Peltier, John Carlo’s corporate equipment manager. The Pleasanton, Calif.-based auction company filed for a $92-million initial
J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. is having a busy year, but not necessarily in terms of equipment sales. As the U.K.-based manufacturer ramps up for what is expected to be a stronger economy next year, it has been busy litigating Chinese companies for allegedly copying the design of its earthmoving machines. The company also is trying hard to say as little as possible about the incidents because it has signed a confidentiality agreement as part of a recent settlement, ENR has learned. J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. (JBC), Staffordshire, England, settled out of court in October with an undisclosed Asian manufacturer, arguing
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