Manitowoc Crane Group and Kobelco Construction Machinery Co. announced an agreement under which Manitowoc Crane’s Deutsche Grove GmbH unit will supply all-terrain cranes to Kobelco. The Kobelco-branded cranes will be sold exclusively in Japan. The parties intend to introduce four models of all-terrain cranes in 2005.

These new all-terrain cranes will complement Kobelco’s current product line. Kobelco has long been committed to manufacturing and selling lattice-boom crawler cranes and rough-terrain cranes on a worldwide basis, and these all-terrain cranes will provide Kobelco with synergies from increased sales.

Kobelco and Manitowoc previously announced an agreement under which Kobelco will supply lattice-boom crawler cranes to be sold by Manitowoc in the Americas under the Manitowoc brand. Kobelco will continue to sell and distribute its own branded lattice-boom crawler cranes in the Americas.

“We are pleased to supply Grove all-terrain cranes to Kobelco in Japan, since Kobelco has well- established relationships with the major Japanese customers of lifting equipment,” said Glen Tellock, Manitowoc Crane Group president. “This complements our earlier crawler crane supply agreement, and we look forward to a continuing business relationship for the benefit of both parties.”

Takashi Ishida, Kobelco Construction Machinery president, said, “We are happy to be able to offer these all-terrain cranes to our customers in Japan. Grove has an excellent global reputation outside of Japan. We believe that these Grove products will help us satisfy even more of the lifting needs of our Japanese customers, and provide better benefits also.

“We are very pleased with the speed of developing business opportunities with the Manitowoc Crane Group. We feel that speed in decision- making is essential to better adjust ourselves to the rapidly changing business environment, and as a part of this adjustment, we recently announced the separation of our crane business from our earth-moving equipment business,” he said.

This story also appears on Crane Equipment Guide.

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