COMMENT

摘要

Just over ten years ago, I remember touring one of the world's major crawler crane factories. At the time, the company - still a world leader in the industry today - said the biggest machine it had ever made had a 650 tonne capacity. However, this was viewed as a complete freak, and something of that size would probably never be built again. 'The company' - I didn't name names here on purpose - would be embarrassed at that statement today. All the major crawler crane manufacturers now have 1,000 tonne+ models in their ranges and several make 3,000 tonne+ machines. What's more the number of major crawler crane manufacturers in the world has more or less doubled in the time since that factory tour, with the emergence of the likes of Sany, Zoomlion and XCMG - to name just the big three - in China.