MINI CRANES Ӏ SECTOR REPORT


MINI CRANES BREAK BIG


Mini cranes are becoming established at last – even in the USA, where size traditionally matters most. Julian Champkin reports.


‘Although we have been exporting and selling our products to overseas markets, mainly Europe, we are unfortunately struggling in North America, which is the largest construction equipment market.’ That is what Japanese Maeda said as recently as last year; and it had a point... and a problem. Traditionally in the US everything is bigger and better. So just how do you sell mini cranes in a maxi-country?


Maeda has been tackling that


problem head-on. In 2022 it created Maeda America Inc. in the USA, as a wholly-owned subsidiary to expand its overseas market. And the place it chose to establish it was the state that prides itself on being the biggest and brashest of all the US states: Texas – where size (as well as friendliness) is almost a state of mind. Selling big diesels in Texas,


for example, would have been no problem. They fit in with the stereotype. Robert 'Buck' Trawick, COO of Maeda America, is one of the men Maeda chose to lead the enterprise. Cranes Today caught up with him at Conexpo back in March. ‘Is America ready for Maeda?’ we asked him? “Round here we have a word for


A Maeda mini-crane being used to lift glazing in the USA


34 CRANES TODAY


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