Tadano Celebrates 1,000th GR-1000XL RT Crane

Enlarge Image Tadano's shipping ceremony for the 1,000th GR-1000XL.

May 20, 2015 - One of Tadano’s flagship crane models, the GR-1000XL rough-terrain crane, recently reached a significant milestone. The company reports it has produced and sold 1,000 units since the crane was introduced in 2011.

 

Koichi Tadano, president and CEO of Tadano Ltd., said during the shipping ceremony of the 1,000th model: “In 2011 when the GR-1000XL was introduced, the Great East Japan Earthquake cut off Tadano’s supply chain, causing a one-time shut down of the assembly line at the Shido plant. Our employees worked hard to fulfill delayed orders for customers who rely on Tadano around the world. Overcoming this crisis has helped us to arrive at this day of commemoration.”

 

The GR-1000XL has been popular in places where harsh environmental circumstances often make it difficult to replace cranes experiencing down time, such as energy development jobsites (mainly in North America, the Middle East and Russia) and mining jobsites (mainly in South America, Australia, and South Africa).

 

In spite of huge fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Japanese yen, which often has a negative impact on exports from Japan, sales of the GR-1000XL remained high and customer response was positive. After the exchange rate stabilized and became more favorable due to the weaker yen, GR-1000XL production accelerated. Tadano achieved the milestone of 1,000 units produced and shipped within four years.

 

After Mr. Tadano’s speech, a Japanese-style prayer ceremony for product safety and success was held, and the 1,000th machine headed out to Houston. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was performed by the company officers of Tadano and staff from the Research and Development Division and Production Division directly in charge of this model. A large number of Tadano employees gathered to celebrate the departure of the 1,000th machine.