Tracked cranes in Japan started in the 50-60 century of last century, mainly mechanical transmission, and began to develop rapidly in 70s. In the bubble economy around 1992, Japanese crawler cranes once created a record breaking annual turnover of 2000 units. But after the bubble economy burst, the sales of crawler cranes in Japan dropped to a low level in 2003, and the annual sales volume was only 351. Japan's crane manufacturers, mainly Kobelco (Kobelco), Hitachi Sumitomo (Hitachi-Sumitomo) and Ishikawa (IHI) company.
Kobe steel (KOBELCO) was founded in 1905 and has been producing tyre cranes since 1953. In 1964, 3000 series of crawler cranes were developed, and 5000 series of crawler cranes were developed in 1977, and 5650 type crawler cranes were successfully designed in 1983, with the maximum weight of 650 tons and 7000 Series in 1984. The SL13000 crawler crane was successfully developed in 1993, with a maximum tonnage of 800 tons. In addition, 60-250 tons of CKE series cranes were developed for the European and American markets. Its products are highly serialized and focus on the development of medium and small tonnage crawler cranes, so they have a certain share in the global market. The sales revenue in 2008 was $939 million.
Sumitomo is a handful of Japanese conglomerates whose history dates back to 1585, when Sumitomo chaebol formed during the Meiji period and was ordered to be dismembered after World War II. After the independent development of various enterprises, today's Sumitomo enterprise group is formed. In 1963, Sumitomo heavy machinery industry (strain) Co operated with Link-belt, Belt, to develop crawler cranes and truck cranes. In 1964, the "Sumitomo Link-belt" truck crane began to be sold, the oil pressure truck crane was developed in 1970, and the hydraulic crawler crane started in the Chiba factory in 1975. All ground cranes were developed in 1990.
Hitachi was founded in 1910, in 1965, after the merger of the construction machinery sales department and Service Department of the Hitachi production Institute, the Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. was set up, the factory was set up in 1970, and the KH150 full oil pressure crawler crane was sold in 1971. In 1981, we worked with the ferries to produce truck cranes and crawler cranes. In 1994, the KH series was upgraded to a CX series.
In 2001, Sumitomo built the company to split up and set up a Sumitomo heavy machinery crane (plant). In July 1, 2002, Sumitomo heavy machinery was merged with Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. to set up Hitachi heavy lift crane (Hitachi-Sumitomo). It mainly produces 30-750 ton class SCX crawler cranes and all terrain cranes. The sales revenue in 2008 was $518 million.
Japan's Ishikawa IHI, founded in 1853, is one of the three largest manufacturers of heavy industries in Japan, and has a history of more than 150 years. Its predecessor is a shipyard, and now it has developed into a comprehensive heavy industry manufacturer. Its products include aerospace, nuclear power chemical industry, transportation ships, engineering machinery and other categories. Crane product is a weakness of IHI. It mainly works with the American tyre company to produce crawler cranes less than 275 tons.
Generally speaking, the crawler cranes produced by Japanese enterprises mainly focus on the models of less than 300 tons, and pay more attention to the refinement and serialization of the products. Compared with the European and American products, it is more suitable for the market demand of the developing countries.
