The ACT100 Index of North America鈥檚 top crane-owning companies saw modest growth over the past year. It鈥檚 impressive that it actually grew at all, given the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. The top 100 companies added 103,738 tons for a total index of 2,881,935. Last year the ACT100 gained 159,537 tons of capacity for a total index of 2,778,193.

North America鈥檚 top crane-owning companies. Photo: Bob Dimmitt Photography

This year, the ACT100 notched growth in every category except number of employees, which fell from 37,437 employees to 36,986 workers. This is understandable considering the impact of the pandemic. Last year, surveying start about the same time the pandemic began. Surveying this year started when vaccinations started peaking and the virus case counts began decreasing.

In 2019, the ACT100 Index was 2,618,656 tons. In 2018 the ACT100 Index was 2,495,860 tons and it was 2,365,977 tons in 2017. Growth in the ACT100 is generally because of a relatively strong economy, mergers/acquisitions by the top 10 companies on the list and the addition of higher capacity cranes.

This year the number of branches increased from 720 last year to 766. As stated previously, employee counts dropped. For the most part, employee counts of the ACT100 have ebbed and flowed over the past five years. Last year鈥檚 peak of 37,437 workers finally surpassed the historic peak of 37,040 workers in 2015.

In 2020 our index showed 3,280 crawler cranes. This year there are 3,332 crawler cranes, a small gain of 52 units. In 2019 our ACT100 reported 3,113 crawler cranes.

This year there were 16,415 mobile cranes as compared to 16,273 in 2020.

By comparison, the ACT100 mobile crane total in 2019 was 16,347. There were 15,944 mobile cranes in 2018 and 15,579 units in 2017. Some 142 mobile cranes were added this year, again an impressive number given the challenges this year.

This year鈥檚 ACT100 has 103 companies on the list with five companies tied with the same total capacity.

For the 16th time, Maxim Crane Works is Number 1 on the ACT100 with an ACT index of 715,000, up from 704,400 in 2020. As a comparison, Maxim posted 698,535 tons capacity in 2019 and 693,464 tons total capacity in 2018.

Maxim appeared to still be in an acquisition mode, for both new cranes and companies. In 2020, Maxim reported a total crane fleet of 3,365 units as compared to 3,265 units last year. Maxim鈥檚 fleet size and ACT index is far larger than its competitors.

Bigge Crane & Rigging remains at the Number 2 spot with ALL Erection staying at Number 3. Bigge and ALL switched rankings in 2019 and it appears Bigge is growing its fleet at a faster rate than ALL.This year Bigge posted an ACT Index of 214,590 with 933 mobile cranes and 330 crawlers. Last year Bigge reported 966 mobile cranes and 268 crawlers and an ACT Index of 193,198. The company concentrated on adding larger capacity crawlers this year.

ALL Erection saw a decrease in fleet size to 2,089 units, down from 2,144 units reported last year. However, with an index of 170,288, ALL did see an increase in capacity from 165,486 in 2020.

The top five rounded out the same as last year with Lampson now at Number 4 and Marmon at Number 5.

Mergers and acquisitions continue to impact the ACT100, although the activity wasn鈥檛 as fervent at it has been in previous years. Biggest gainers this year are W.O. Grubb, Mountain Crane Service, Berry Contracting/Bay Crane, Superior Cranes, Custom Truck One Source, Boss Crane & Rigging, Irving Equipment, Vic鈥檚 Crane & Heavy Haul, Atlas Crane Service, GA West/Legacy, Crane Service Company and McRay Crane Service.

The top 25 stayed pretty much the same, with a few flip flops here and there. The largest new company to enter the ACT100 is Davis Crane Companies, which is located in the Dallas metro area.

The largest crawler crane fleet in North America again belongs to Maxim Crane Works with 515 units, up from 505 last year. Maxim also has the largest mobile crane fleet in North America with 2,850 units, up from 2,715 units from 2021.

The largest crane on the ACT100 is Mammoet鈥檚 5,000-ton capacity PTC 200 DS and Sarens USA鈥檚 SGC-250, both with 5,000 tons capacity.

Other heavy lift cranes on the ACT100 are the 3,000-ton capacity Lampson LTL-3000 and Deep South Crane and Rigging VersaCrane TC36000/2.

Methodology

For this list 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 16 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 102 companies submitting forms. Due to ties, there is one company on the list with an asterisk and is shown as an estimate. For this entries, we d

id not get updated information and instead relied on an estimate formula based on data obtained last year and through other sources. All these companies on the list were contacted, some several times, and given the opportunity to supply fleet information and related data.

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鈥檚 fleet.