ACE high

With more than 10,500 units produced each year, India is without a doubt the biggest market for pick & carry cranes. Ed Darwin spoke with Sorab Agarwal, executive director of Action Construction Equipment (ACE) to find out how the company went from producing its first pick & carry crane under a tarpaulin tent to become the market leader just eight years later, and how it has maintained its position ever since.

- Darwin

Global giants

“ACE started in a very small way,” explains Agarwal. “in 1995 my father, Vijay Agarwal, put all his savings into building a single eight tonne pick & carry crane. built under a temporary structure on uneven land, it was far from glamorous, but he knew with only one or two players in the market there was an opportunity. A lot of hardship and a lot of work followed, but the company kept on growing, changing, improving and upgrading until we got to where we are today - the largest manufacturer of pick & carry cranes in the world.”

The company now claims a 63 percent share of the articulated pick & carry market, producing around 6,500 units a year at its 100 acre/400,000 square metre facility in Faridabad. The majority of these are traditional tractor-based models however a growing number of the articulated cranes produced are from its ‘NextGen’ range which are more similar in design to the pick & carry cranes produced in Australia. The company has also expanded its crane product line - all designed and built entirely inhouse - to include self-erecting and top slewing tower cranes, crawler cranes and truck mounted cranes. More recently it has diversified into general construction equipment and tractors with its full product offering supported by more than 100 service and dealer locations throughout India.