News

Cranes sales and rebuilds show significant upturn

A surge of orders for new or refurbished cranes in the Gulf of Mexico means a $3 million-plus bulge in demand for work to be carried out at Sparrows Houma, Broussard and Houston facilities.

The biggest single order was signed late last week with Nabors Drilling and is for two new EC 65 (pictured) modular box-boom cranes to be built at Sparrows Manufacturing at Northwinds, Houston, plus upgrade kits to be supplied for two EC 65s previously supplied to the same client.

Meanwhile the Broussard center, fresh from delivering a refurbished American Aero G15 to Chapman Consulting, are now getting their teeth into a much larger project to rebuild a Nautilus 180B for Maritech Resources.

Over at Houma, the shop is very busy on rebuilds and boom manufacture. The rebuilds are two Unit 3600s for Nabors, one Nautilus 180L for Apache, and two EBI L500s and two EBI 150Bs for Superior’s liftboats ‘Respect’ and ‘Influence’ – with four additional booms to manufacture in support of Houston Northwinds.

Meanwhile at Sparrows Houston Central depot, the first of two crane rebuilds for the US Coastguard has just been delivered, with work now starting on the second.

“These eighteen projects ensure a solid flow of quality work through our Houma, Broussard, Northwinds and Central plants in coming months”, says Doug Clement, Sparrows’ newly-promoted Vice President of Crane Services (USA), whose facilities will take the lead on the rebuild orders.

The Nabors order for EC 65s is noteworthy as the client has called for modifications converting the standard EC 65 boxboom design to a modular construction concept for use by Nabors on their Sundowner rigs working for ONGC off India. The client’s critical demand was that no component should weigh more than 5 tonnes.

Not only have Sparrows met these criteria, but our engineers also responded with improved pin-fit rig-up/rig-down systems which enhance safety while at the same time saving time and money.

Sparrows Manufacturing Vice President John Cameron says: “This order cements our strong relationship with Nabors; we have already supplied four similar cranes in the past and the new order confirms their satisfaction with the quality and reliability of the product, and the service our team delivers to them.”

Chris Dixon, Sparrows Executive Director (Western Hemisphere), says “We are all very aware of the challenges thrown at the industry of late, but these contracts highlight that there are opportunities too. Sparrows US business is winning orders and making a profit. As the market recovers, we’ll win more and make more, both as a business and for our employees.”