Choi Byung Eun, president and CEO of South Korean firm Shinui Petra, is a big fan of its Manitowoc MLC650 crawler crane, which is in constant high demand and earns the company premium rental rates.
Leading South Korean rental company Shinui Petra truly understands the benefit of buying cranes from Manitowoc. The company enjoys solid returns from its three Potain MR 608 and four Potain MCR 225 A luffing jib tower cranes, as well as its four Model 12000s and one MLC165 crawler cranes. But the real jewel in the company’s crown is its huge Manitowoc MLC650 with VPC-MAX (Variable Position Counterweight) option that provides a maximum load capacity of up to 700 t with a 146 m boom.
As one of Manitowoc’s leading customers in the country, Shinui Petra took delivery of South Korea’s first MLC650 in early 2016. It was immediately put to work, on several major projects and has recently completed work on Samsung’s microchip factory in Pyeongtaek. Its latest project is at a wind farm in the southwest of the country.
“When it comes to wind tower erection or maintenance jobs in tight or congested areas for heavy industry, the MLC650 has no competition,” said Shinui Petra president and CEO, Choi Byung Eun. “It’s the only crane that can do such heavy work in these confined spaces without touching the ground beyond the crawlers because its counterweight stays elevated.”
The VPC-MAX system means that the MLC650 only requires around one tenth of the ground preparation that competitor cranes need.
“This is one reason why some companies won’t allow the use of any other crane,” Choi continues. “In fact, one large Korean conglomerate prefers Manitowoc crawler cranes and Grove all-terrain cranes, because they are faster, more assured, more efficient, and more powerful.”
These advantages pay dividends for companies involved at every level of the project, he adds: “Because the contractors can save substantial land preparation, logistic and assembly costs, there are no complaints when we ask for a rental fee that’s 20-30% higher. Its productivity is much higher, so the contractors still end up making more money than they would with competing models.
As for the end customer, any higher contract cost is more than compensated for by the ability to begin commercial production earlier. For example, petrochemical or microchip factories can invoice millions of dollars per day – so if the use of an MLC650 shortens the build by a week, they could already have earned tens of millions of dollars in the time it would have taken for a cheaper crane to finish the job.”
With these kinds of results it’s easy to see why the MLC650 is such a profitable performer for Shinui Petra and why president and CEO Choi Byung Eun has such love for the machine.