At the handover of the Grove GMK6300L to Hiap Tong. Left to right are: Adrian Seah, Hiap Tong; Patrick Ng, Hiap Tong; Ong Jun Xiong, Hiap Tong; Gilles Martin, Manitowoc; John Stewart, Manitowoc; Chian Ker Jeng, Manitowoc.
Hiap Tong, one of Singapore’s leading crane rental companies, added a Grove GMK6300L all-terrain crane to its fleet — the first of these cranes in Singapore.
One of the first projects for the crane is installing and replacing elevators in residential buildings owned by the Singapore government’s Housing Development Board.
The project is perfect for the GMK6300L and its 80 m main boom, the longest in this capacity class. A long main boom allows the crane to reach applications at height without having to fit a jib, unlike other cranes in this capacity class. Not having the jib saves time getting the crane ready to work, meaning the job can be completed faster.
Gilles Martin, executive vice president of Manitowoc Cranes in Greater Asia-Pacific, made the official handover of the GMK6300L to Hiap Tong and said he expected good things from the crane.
“We have sold other GMK6300L cranes in New Zealand, Australia and China, and the feedback is very positive and customers love the cranes,” he said. “The standout feature is obviously the main boom, but we find customers also really like the strength the crane offers across the whole load chart. For a company like Hiap Tong that has projects in general construction, refineries and industrial plants, this combination of features makes this compact and powerful crane an ideal lift solution for a wide range of projects.”
The GMK6300L is a 300 t capacity six-axle all-terrain crane and is one of the most advanced mobile cranes in the industry. The crane has a number of Grove features, such as the patented Megatrak suspension that offers optimal travel both on and off the road. Also in the rugged carrier is a fully automatic Allison transmission with torque converter. The GMK6300L is the only crane among its competitors with this powerful and reliable drive solution. In December 2011, more than 60 guests from crane and construction companies across Singapore traveled to Manitowoc’s regional headquarters to see the crane.
In addition to these and other advanced lifting features, the GMK6300L also comes with CraneSTAR, Manitowoc’s remote monitoring system. CraneSTAR allows customers to view recent operating statistics for the crane from any PC-based internet-connected device. This ground-breaking technology for the crane industry allows customers such as Hiap Tong to plan maintenance for the GMK6300L or to look at recent lift activity and travel schedules.
Ong Teck Meng, executive chairman and CEO at Hiap Tong, said the GMK6300L was a good fit with his company’s business philosophy overall.
“Since starting out in 1978 we’ve continuously focused our operations on providing creative solutions to complex lifting problems,” he said. “A key part of our ability to offer that to customers is having the best cranes in the business. In our opinion, the GMK6300L is the best crane in this class.”
Hiap Tong supplies cranes and lifting services to customers in the marine, petrochemical and construction industries in Singapore, and also runs a trading division for equipment, selling into markets such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Middle East.
Its rental fleet has an average age of just nine years and its 200-plus customer base includes names such as SembCorp Industries Ltd., Keppel Corporation Limited, Sankyu (S) Pte. Ltd, Singapore Takada Industries Pte Ltd, Bachy Soletanche Singapore Pte. Ltd., Dyna-mac Engineering Services Pte. Ltd, and Rotary Engineering Ltd.