Crane Selling Points on Resale Market

Cranes appear to have two selling points with the first occurring in the 5 to 7 year range and the second around 15 years.
[su_box title=”This graph shows the age trend of cranes in the resale market by sale year.” box_color=”#ddd” title_color=”#000000″ style=”height: 100%;” ][/su_box]

Key Takeaways for Decision Makers

EQUIPMENT MANAGER/RENTER/SELLER: Cranes are in the top 5 for longest economic life and can be used for a relatively longer period of time than most equipment while retaining some value up to 30 years and older.

Cranes are expensive, large and heavy and not as versatile as say a tractor-loader-backhoe. As one would expect, the sales volume (both new and used) of cranes is much lower than those of other commonly used heavy equipment. Interestingly, cranes have a different selling point (based on age/usage) than other equipment. For example, as was shown in a previous article about aging trend of telehandlers, the most common age to be listed for sale is 7-8 years. After that spike in volume it gradually decreases which tells us that telehandlers have only one ideal selling point. After analyzing 4 years of historical resale data we determined that the most common age for cranes is in the 5 to 7 year range, and unlike telehandlers, which have a singular selling point (spike in sales volume), volume for cranes after the maximum point (most common age) peaks again in the ages of 15-17 years, indicating that cranes have two ideal, or common, selling points: 5-7 years and 15-17 years.

Surprisingly, cranes with an age of 30 years and older are still popular in the resale market as they take up the highest proportion of volume. Granted, that volume is the result of combining all equipment ages 30 years and older. However, it is does suggest that even cranes with such high ages retain some value and can be used for a relatively longer period than many other equipment types.

[su_spacer size=”30″] [su_box title=”This graph shows the age trend of cranes in the resale market for the top 3 manufacturers and others by sales volume.” box_color=”#ddd” title_color=”#000000″ style=”height: 100%;” ][/su_box]

As expected, when looking at the age trend of cranes by manufacturer we see a similar trend as the first graph with only a slightly higher proportion on the most common ages of 5-7 years. Interestingly, the resale volume of Terex cranes is not as evenly distributed as other brands and has no values over 24 years. This is because Terex didn’t start selling cranes until the late 80s when it acquired the crane manufacturers American and Koehring. Now, however, Terex is among the top 3 manufacturers by resale volume, holding roughly 10%. Unlike other equipment, cranes have strong market leaders with the top 3 manufacturers by sales volume holding about 50% of all resale volume.

Also, like we saw with the first graph, resale volume of ages of 30 years and older has the highest proportion, supporting the contention that cranes are one of the top 5 equipment types with the longest economic life as examined in this article.

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