Crane manufacturer BB Cranes is preparing to manufacture six overhead cranes for steel distributor D&E Group for installation in new warehouses in Cape Town and George.

The warehouses are being built to meet increasing demand for D&E Group’s range of mild steel, aluminium and stainless steel from engineering firms, construction companies and general industry.

D&E’s warehouse cranes will be a mix of 8 t and 5 t designed as single-girder electric overhead travelling machines, and manufactured to FEM class 2M standard – the classification for medium- to heavy-duty service.

According to a statement issued by parent company Condra Cranes, the cranes will incorporate larger-diameter wheels and miscellaneous other components on the hoists and end-carriages to ensure durability under intensive use conditions.

Lifting heights will be around 6.5 m, and girder spans will range between 12 m and 20 m.

“Because we manufacture in Cape Town, customers get a short lead time on a new crane. They also gain access to readily available spare parts for maximum crane uptime. We deliver spares within 24 hours,” says BB Cranes senior sales executive Stephen Brink Jnr, explaining that local manufacture helped win the D&E order.

He says that, for a crane to be cost effective, downtime has to be minimised. However, users buying foreign cranes sometimes do not consider how much downtime will cost them if the crane is idle for long periods while spares are imported from abroad.

“Our spares are made locally, so delivery is almost immediate.”

Further, commenting on manufacturing capacity, Brink says that BB Cranes can deliver a new crane between eight and twelve weeks from date of order, a short lead time that provides a significant competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, Brink announced that the company has recently added 400 m2 of factory floor space to its Rivergate premises, with the extra space allowing smoother production of an order book that continues to grow.

“We have employed an additional fabricator, and we have ongoing training programmes in place for factory staff.”