Cranecorp, Tutt Bryant establish joint venture

Cranecorp Australia and Tutt Bryant are forming a joint venture to provide clients access to a larger supply of cranes, and heavy lifting and transportation equipment.

The JV brings together Western Australia-based Cranecorp and Singapore-owned Tutt Bryant’s fleets so they can compete against the biggest player in the crane market, Dutch-based Mammoet. 

Tutt Bryant managing director Chen Wei Ng said the JV brought together like-minded organisations with complementary assets.

“The intention there is it would then allow us to respond more fully to our customers who may be looking for a full scope that covers both crawlers, mobiles, engineering services, specialised transport, and turnkey project services,” Mr Ng told Business News.

Cranecorp’s equipment includes all-terrain cranes with labour, while Tutt Bryant has crawler cranes and specialist engineering teams, Cranecorp chief executive Rod White said.

“If you add them to what we have, then we have every sort of crane imaginable,” Mr White told Business News.

“Between the two of us, we end up with the full suite of services that anyone could possibly need. Whether it be an oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, renewables, utilities, telecommunications.”

The combined fleet of the joint venture includes crawler cranes with up to 1,600 tonnes capacity, mobile cranes of 500t capacity, specialised transport including SPT and SMT, and general equipment like lighting and power.

It will also offer labour and engineering expertise.

Mr White said to have a local company succeeding in this area was exciting for the industry.

He said the crane sector in WA was dynamic, with smaller players being acquired by larger companies in the space.

“It makes us a serious competitor in the crane industry and we can take on the world’s biggest crane company who is one of our competitors,” Mr White said.

Other large crane players in the market include Monadelphous, which recently secured a $150 million contract with Fortescue Metals Group for work at its Solomon and Eliwana operations; Freo Group, which was acquired by Canada-based Marmon Crane Services Inc in 2012; and Sarens, which has its headquarters in Belgium.