Dartford, UK-based Hawks Crane Hire has ordered Europe’s first 300 tonne capacity Kobelco CKE3000G crawler crane. 

Launched at the end of last year the first two units were delivered to Indonesian contractor Guna Teguh Abadi (GTA) Construction in March.

The CKE3000G has three lifting modes: the Standard with 300 tonnes capacity at 5.5 metres, Heavy Lift (HL) with a capacity of 189.8 tonnes at 8.8 metres and Super Heavy Lift (SHL) with a 350 tonnes capacity at eight metres.

Hawks Crane Hire ordered a 78 metre main boom, 60 metre luffing fly jib and a 30 metre back mast and tray allowing HL and SHL duties.

Kobelco claims the CKE3000G lifts 40 percent more in standard specification and 60 percent more as a luffer, compared to the 250 tonne CKE2500G-2. It says that in SHL configuration ‘it can easily compete with 400 to 500 tonne class’ cranes. All components are less than three metres wide. Power is provided by a Scania Stage IV/Tier 4 Final engine.

Elliot Hawkins, Hawks’s managing director, said: “The CKE3000G is a very flexible machine that will not only work well in the pre-cast, modular building sector - currently one of our largest markets - but will also open the door to new opportunities in the UK’s heavy lift marketplace, particularly the energy sector - gas, oil, renewables and energy to waste power plant construction - and on large-scale infrastructure projects, such as HS2 and Hinkley Point C.”

“We chose the Kobelco’s CKE3000G because we were really impressed with its duties in standard luffing jib configuration. We did very thorough comparisons with several other competitor’s cranes and it out-performed one by a staggering 35 percent. It also beat a 350 tonne competitor machine, which is incredible.”

The crane will be handed over at next year’s Bauma exhibition in Munich.
Mark Evans, Kobelco Cranes Europe’s sales & operations manager said: “This is the first Kobelco crane of this size that has been sold into this all-important market and marks the first step in the next phase of Kobelco Cranes’ expansion of its product line-up for the region.”

Hawks Crane Hire also took delivery of its second CKE2500G-2 last December. Delivered to its Dartford depot the crane has a maximum lifting capacity of 250 tonnes at 4.6 metres, a maximum boom length of 91.4 metres and was supplied with a luffing jib. The company has also placed an order for a second CKE900G-2 which like the CKE2500G-2, is fitted with Kobelco’s KCross remote operation management system to help maximise machine efficiency and uptime. Hawks bought its first 90 tonne CKE900G-2 in 2016.