27
MARCH 2014
ACT
MIDWEST
REGIONAL REPORT
Road and bridge projects
look good to Liptak for the
rest of 2014. He cites as a
driver “several governors’
proposing budgets with
creative revenue packages
to address infrastructure
problems.”
“Many of these projects need big
lifts, and manufacturers have put the
development of ever-larger ATs and RTs
on the front burner,” Liptak explained. “To
that end, we keep adding to our 300-plus-
ton inventory for all-terrain cranes. We’ve
added a 900-ton AT. We have also made a
large commitment to 150-ton RTs.”
With an optimism-soaked 2014 outlook,
Liptak offers one significant challenge.
“Our biggest issue over the past few years
has been labor,” he said. “The recession
took a lot of guys into retirement. But it
is a little more complicated than that. It’s
the combined impact of the recession and
the fact that young adults aren’t as inclined
to seek jobs in the trades as they did a
generation ago.”
Energy work abounds
Trand Crane Services is a Pratt, Kansas-
area company that works mostly in
Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and
Kansas. Andrea Arnett, whose parents
started the company by purchasing an
oilfield company in 1990, said much of
their work is energy-related.
“We do lots of turnarounds and gas plant
work,” she said. Her sister’s given name,
Tressa (TR), and Andrea (AND) prompted
growing. These developments have fueled
our buying trend. Hard-working industrial
cranes and rough terrain cranes are the
utility cranes that have been a huge part of
our recent packages. Our crawler fleet –
the largest in the United States – is seeing
utilization at its highest level in years.”
He said the Manitowoc Model 16000s,
18000s and 2250s are in very high
demand.
“And we just received a mammoth
Liebherr 1750-9.1 to help offset heavy lift
demand,” he said. “I don’t think the growth
we describe in employees and equipment
should necessarily translate into a reckless
boom. Rather, there were some necessary
adjustments to be made coming out of the
recession. Growth has stabilized. Growth
in 2014 will be like 2013 – slow
and steady.”
Liptak’s list of Midwest
business drivers begins with oil
and gas.
“They’re both big,” he said.
“We have a lot of crane activity
throughout the Bakken
(oil), Utica (natural gas) and
Marcellus (natural gas) fields.
In fact, we have branches
that surround their areas of
exploration.”
The Midwest power industry
sector also remains strong. Plant SCR
retrofits drive business. So do refinery
capacity expansions.
“Commercial construction has really
stepped up,” Liptak said. “For example,
Chicago has strong infrastructure projects
and a rebirth in vertical construction.
Cleveland, too, has seen surging
development, from a major convention
center to seemingly non-stop expansion at
its medical campuses.”
According to Liptak, industrial activity,
including major projects at steel plants, is
keeping Indiana and Ohio yards busy.
Liptak views industrial activity as “a nice
indicator that automotive and appliance
manufacturers are stepping up production.
These plants need cranes, too, mostly
industrial cranes and small hydros they
keep almost on permanent rental. We are
seeing a lot of bid activity.”
Liptak remains positive about mining.
“Iron mining in Minnesota is also
growing,” he said. “Sand mines in
Wisconsin are also hopping. Those
projects require taxi cranes, rough terrain
cranes, industrial cranes, telehandlers and
access equipment for construction and/
or maintenance. The sand is used in the
fracking process.”
Trand Crane Services
performs a lot of work in gas
plants and refineries.
Trand’s GMK 7550 lifts
and places a tank.
Trand’s Andrea Arnett said
her company is seeing
more wind turbine work in
Oklahoma and Kansas.
their parents to name the company after
their then-youthful daughters – Trand.
“We’re also seeing more wind-turbine
work in Oklahoma and Kansas,” Arnett
added.
“GE supplied many of those wind
turbines to Midwest customers. In the
future, individual companies will be
stepping in to do their own maintenance.
Our company can be very helpful to
them.”
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