Brisbane City Cranes recently took delivery of a new XCMG XCA40-E 40 tonne capacity all terrain. General Manager Billy Sasalu and Business Development Manager Joe Conti explain the reasons for choosing XCMG.
Brisbane City Cranes first took notice of XCMG two years ago at the CICA National Conference and Exhibition where they had the XCA40-E on display.
“I first looked at it because it was very similar to other brands in terms of size, shape, and capacity,” said Billy. “I went on to conduct research and due diligence on the crane. I spent a lot of time researching the engine, the operational nature of the crane, the hydraulics, transmission and motors. Although I was aware of the general consensus that Chinese gear ‘is not quite where it needs to be, and you get what you pay for’, I am not of that opinion. I have been very impressed with the overall quality of the crane.
“Also, from a business perspective, with the rates we are able to charge for cranes, and factor in the current Euro exchange rate and the quality and price of the crane, we figured XCMG was good value for the business.
“I started by comparing the XCMG XCA40-E with our LTC1045s. The motor sizes were comparative. They are running the Daimler motor, the transmissions are Ellison Autos, and the hydraulics systems feature European brands. I worked with one of our experienced fitters and bounced a lot of things off him and in terms of servicing and maintenance it was quite comparative to the LTCs. With that size of crane, there are not too many components. Like all manufacturers it comes with service schedules and documents as to how to look after it and we’ll follow these guidelines,” he said.
Joe has been impressed with the quality of the XCMG.
“There’s no doubting the quality of the crane. I’ve been to China a few times visiting the factories and met a very smart bunch of people who are improving their products all of the time with continued investment in state of the art manufacturing technologies. The crane has joined the fleet, and it’s doing great things and ticking along nicely.
“From a strategic perspective, we operated LTC1045s, which basically built the business. Purchasing the XCMG has enabled us to meet our competitors with a similar crane but be cost-effective with our rates which will ultimately benefit our clients,” he said.
The XCMG XCA40-E is a versatile and innovative crane designed for efficient lifting. It has a maximum lifting capacity of 40 tonne, features a more optimised layout for higher lifting performance, and adopts the classic K-series Jib telescoping technique for safer and more reliable lifting. The crane features a main-boom of 35 metres, and fully extended boom with jib is 44.5 metres, with a maximum lifting height of 48 metres. The lifting performance of the XCA40-E is higher than equivalent brands in the same class.
Overseas, crane rental service Sarens recently signed a memorandum of understanding with XCMG to supply a fleet of all terrains. Joe sees this development as sound business sense.
“The labour market in Europe is very unionised and as the costs of cranes continues to rise they are in the same predicament as us in terms of the rates they can charge. With this agreement they are purchasing the same crane for 50 to 60 per cent less than they were from the major manufacturers, it’s just business.
“That’s the concern for the European manufacturers. I believe this will prove to be a tsunami that’s going to sweep through the industry, and I’d rather be on the front end of it. As long as the product is going to be supported and we can see that XCMG is putting in place the right support structure and network,” said Joe.
“Through Stephen Broomfield, General Manager XCMG Oceania Crane Center, we have direct lines of communication to the factory and the technicians working with the cranes. I’m confident with the level of product support we will be receiving. It’s like any machine, as long as we are following the manufacturer’s spec, it’s going to run its course like any other machine, European or non-European.”
The XCMG comes with 35 metres of live main power boom and 16-metres of fly with a swing away fly attachment. It runs a single winch which is what Billy wanted in this class of crane.
“The fly attachments and running the single winch makes setup very straight forward. Being a two-axle machine, it drops us down in class category for the Queensland On-Road Intelligent Access Program (IAP) registration. We’re not classed as a Category 2, we are in the Category 1 Non-IAP system which means we gain more access to public roads through Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads,” he said.
Billy is also a fan of the XCMG’s operating system.
“The operating system is ‘stripped back’ and relatively simple and I’m a big fan. I was lucky enough to be taught by older guys, including my father, who would have absolutely no idea about today’s computers. When I say the operations are simple, the young upcoming guys have picked it up very quickly and for the older guys, it’s not too technical.
“Another feature we are impressed with involves the error code pages. We’ve got cranes where the error code booklet runs to 500 pages, and a technician has to read through these to determine what the issue is. The error code booklet for the XCMG is much simpler,” he said.
Brisbane City Cranes is on the move. Billy recently moved into the role of General Manager and continues to drive the business, said Joe.
“We are going great in a market that is testing in respect to staffing and like everyone else in the industry, it is giving us a bit of a headache,” Joe said.
“We recently employed a full-time CAD (computer-aided-design) designer in the business which enables us to provide our own CAD lift plan drawings.
“We have continued to grow in a positive manner. I’m extremely happy where we’re at. Billy’s leading the business fantastically for us. We’ve just acquired this crane and we’re looking to acquire another crane in the next hopefully two months, all going well.
“There’s no figure on which cranes or how many, we just want to continue to support our clients, and our client list is growing exponentially.”