100 largest crane companies in North America

The ACT100 index of North America’s top crane-owning companies took a big jump in 2023, eclipsing the 3 million mark for a total capacity of 3,080,314 tons capacity. The index added eight new companies and 527,719 tons capacity.

The retraction we saw last year was a blip apparently, with the top 10 companies seeing gains in capacity and fleet sizes over 2022. Last year the ACT100 index was at 2,552,592 . In 2021, the ACT100 added 89,917 tons for a total index of 2,868,110. In 2020, the ACT100 gained 159,537 tons of capacity for a total index of 2,778,193.

Maxim Crane Works is still number one, reporting an index of 896,661 tons. Maxim is not just the first company on the ACT100, but the first company by a far margin in excess of 600,00 tons. The top 10 crane companies stayed intact for the most part with Maxim, Bigge and All Erection keeping their top three spots. Buckner HeavyLift, Lampson International and Marmon Crane Services round out the top six. The top 10 ended up with Mammoet Americas at seven, TNT at eight, Barnhart at nine and Beyel Brothers at ten. Big gainers this year include Bay Ltd, Lift Source Machinery, Atlas Crane Service, Big B Crane, Wagstaff, McRay, Rossco and Superior Cranes.

In 2023, the number of branches increased from 784 to 814. Last year, the number of branches increased to 784 from 760 in 2021. The employee count for the ACT100 surpassed all bounds with 71,131 employees, some 30,000 higher than last year and the highest employee count ever. In 2022, the number of employees on the ACT100 was 41,032 people, as opposed to 36,987 in 2021. Employee counts of the ACT100 have ebbed and flowed over the past five years.

The 2022 index showed 3,129 crawler cranes. This year that number grew to 3,346. In 2021, the index showed 3,288 crawler cranes. The only category that fell in 2023 was mobile cranes. This year our ACT100 reported 15,050 mobile cranes, some 507 less than last year. In 2022, there were 15,557 mobile cranes reported on the list as compared to 16,351 mobile cranes in 2021.

Mergers and acquisitions continue to impact the ACT100, although the activity wasn’t as extreme as past years. The top 25 stayed pretty much the same, with a few trading spaces here and there. The largest new company to enter the ACT100 is Roll Group Americas at Number 48 with an index of 10,440. The largest crawler crane fleet in North America is owned by Maxim Crane Works with 428 crawler cranes. Bigge follows with 398 crawlers and Lampson with 393.

Maxim still has the largest mobile crane fleet with 1,753 units. ALL is next with 1,597 and Bigge follows with 1,143. The largest cranes on the ACT100 are Sarens’ SGC-250 and Mammoet Americas’ PTC 200, both with 5,000 tons capacity. Fagioli and Buckner HeavyLift both have Liebherr LR 13000s with 3,307 tons capacity. Deep South and Lampson have the Transi-Lift 3000 and the VersaCrane TC 36000/2, posting capacities of 3,000 tons respectively. Maxim owns the 2,535-ton Manitowoc 31000.

Our methodology

We sent surveys to close to 500 companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. While the ACT100 is much more comprehensive than it was when we started it 18 years ago, we realize there are probably 10 to 15 major crane-owning companies not represented. Some companies do not want to share information about their fleets, and we respect their decision.

This year we were 100 percent with 103 companies submitting forms. There are three ties and one company with an asterisk, shown as an estimate. As stated previously, in the largest crane category, different capacities may be listed for the same machine. We rely on the information supplied to us in determining these capacities as rigging variables can change the capacity of the crane.

Because the vast majority of crane-owning companies are privately held, it can be difficult to obtain and verify figures, although we do approach independent industry sources for assistance and use related web resources and research when we use an estimate.

Disclaimer

We rely on the integrity of the companies that participate, wholly assuming that the information they provide is accurate and truthful to the best of their knowledge.

We work to ensure the accuracy of the information provided but take no responsibility for errors or omissions. We will continue to work to make the ACT100 the most comprehensive list of crane-owning companies in North America.

Companies are ranked by their ACT100 Index, which is calculated by adding together the maximum lifting capacities in U.S. tons of all crawler cranes and mobile cranes in a company’s fleet.