Photo courtesy of Howard I. Shapiro and Associates OSHA intends to push back a looming crane operator certification deadline to give regulators time to review the 2010 regulation. Related Links: Viewpoint: OSHA Crane Rules Must Change Viewpoint: OSHA Crane Rules Have Merit Crane operators may have three more years to pass exams while the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration considers reopening its regulation on cranes and derricks. Some safety experts say they are glad to see OSHA reviewing the rules; however, feelings are mixed over the proposed testing delay."Safety has now been sacrificed," says Robert Weiss, vice president of

In an unprecedented engineering feat, New York City high-rise crews on May 11 successfully hoisted a 150-ft-long replacement luffing boom to the roof of One57, a 1,100-ft-tall residential building under construction in midtown Manhattan, and attached it to an existing tower-crane mast.

Augusto Diniz/O Empreiteiro Choe Byeong-ku, president and COO of Hyundai's construction equipment division, says the global market "will overcome" its current sluggishness. Augusto Diniz/O Empreiteiro Hyundai's Itatiaia, Brazil, unit will produce 3,000 machines annually, with a goal of 4,000 units by 2014. Related Links: For Brazil Equipment Buyers, Support Is King Whats Keeping International Firms Out of Brazils Infrastructure Market? As anti-dumping duties remain high in Brazil, Hyundai Heavy Industries Ltd. has inaugurated its first plant there. The $175-million invesment is also Hyundai's first outside the Asian continent.Opened last month and located in Itatiaia, the unit will produce 3,000 machines

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Liebherr's HS-8300HD crawler crane hangs the pressure tanks under a catwalk. YouTube Liebherr's Pactronic hydraulic-hybrid system was first implemented on harbor cranes. Related Links: Caterpillar's New Hybrid Excavator Offers Savings at a Small Price Bauma 2013 Equipment Expo Attracts Record Visitors As fuel prices keep climbing, the business case becomes stronger for hybrid power on heavy equipment. But the payoff period for heavy-duty hybrids is still fuzzy, and equipment designers face the tough decision of which technology to pick.Excavators consume a large amount of fuel when swinging back and forth between digging and

Related Links: Innovation Awards Kick Off Bauma 2013 Trade Show JCB Sets Record Earnings, Announces Clean-Diesel Prices Liugong-Cummins Engine Plant Fires Up in China Genie SX-180 Superboom Travels Without Permits Caterpillar's New Hybrid Excavator Offers Savings Excavator Sales Show Signs of Recovery in China Five Trends To Watch At Bauma 2013 Uncertainty in world construction markets has the heavy-equipment sector posting sideways growth this year, but manufacturers and suppliers are hopeful the worst is behind them."The economy is gyrating," admitted Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar Inc. chairman and chief executive officer, at the triennial Bauma equipment expo, held on April 15-21 in

Photo courtesy Joe Volpe Crews working atop One57 use a mini-crane to assemble a stiff-leg derrick. YouTube Maeda mini-crane works on Baku Flame Towers Project. Related Links: Dangling Crane Was Act of God, Engineers Say Spider Cranes Crawl Into Tight Spaces Bigger is not always better. Such is the case of a small lifting machine, called a mini-crane, that has been advancing rigging and hoisting work needed to replace a large tower crane that partially collapsed in Midtown Manhattan last October during Superstorm Sandy.The unusual work requires crews to cut down, remove and then replace a crane-jib superstructure that is

Terex Corp.'s record-breaking Genie SX-180 boom lift, whose maximum platform height towers to 180 ft, uses a patented chassis that allows it to ride on a lowboy trailer without needing special road permits, sources at Genie say.

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR JCB's booth was busy the first day of the Bauma show, where it reported record earnings for 2012. Related Links: In India, Small Backhoes Mean Big Business JCB Digs Big Profit in Africa And Middle East In a year of tough economic conditions worldwide, J.C. Bamford Excavators Ltd. outperformed the equipment sector in 2012 by posting earnings of $559.5 million—a record for the 67-year-old company—on $4.1 billion of sales and increasing production as others slipped."In view of the continued fragility of the global economy, which has led to renewed slowdowns in emerging and

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Liugong, which is building diesel engines with Cummins, displayed 28 machines at Bauma 2013. Photo by Tudor Van Hampton at ENR Tom Linebarger, chairman and CEO of Cummins, says the deal will help it access emerging markets. Related Links: Chinese Machinery Exports Grow 20% in 2012 Excavator Sales Show Signs of Recovery in China Last year's roughly 40% decline in heavy-equipment sales in China was not just a sales nightmare—it was also a potent reminder to the Chinese manufacturers that they need to increase their share outside of China to support their high-volume

Photo by Tudor Van Hampton for ENR Martin Herrenknecht (center) took home a Bauma innovation prize for a semi-trenchless pipeline machine. Related Links: Five Trends To Watch At Bauma 2013 Bauma 2013 Website The European economy continues to suffer from a banking crisis that has slowed down most industries here, but manufacturers in the construction space are optimistic that fiscal policy and bright ideas will eventually win the day."We're all hopeful and quite confident that the political leaders will be able to come to grips with the situation," said Johann Sailer, president of construction elevator manufacturer GEDA and president of