Five of the world’s largest cranes

In our 60 plus years in business, Ritchie Bros. has sold a lot of cranes at our unreserved public equipment auctions around the world – from conventional truck cranes to crawler cranes and all terrain cranes.

But what we have yet to see in our auctions are the following five cranes, custom designed, engineered and built for specific tasks that your average crane just isn’t strong enough, or big enough to handle:

The Asian Hercules

The barge-mounted Asian Hercules crane is over 240 feet long and more than 130 feet wide. It weighs 5,900 tons and has enough lifting capacity (1600 MT) to lift a weight equal to 2,000 small cars.¹

The Kockums Crane

The 453-foot-high Kockums gantry crane was built in 1973-1974 for use in ship building at the Kockums shipyard in Malmö, Sweden. The crane had a lifting capacity of 1,500 tons and its rail was 2,329 feet long.²

Saipem 7000

The colossal Saipem 7000 was built as a vessel used to install large oil production platform decks as well as the supporting structures. It features two fully revolving cranes with 459-foot-long booms. Each crane has a lifting capacity of 7,000 tons and the cranes are each powered by 15,600 hp engines. The estimated cost of the vessel was US$400 million.³

Liebherr LR 13000

The Liebherr LR 13000 is the most powerful crawler crane in the world. Designed for use in nuclear power station construction, the LR 13000’s main boom can reach a height of 473 feet, and the crane has a lifting capacity of 3,000 tons. The crane itself weighs 748 tons. ⁴

Equipment for saleSponsored2019 JCB 510-56 TelehandlerPhoenix, AZ Aug 25, 2026View listing

Liebherr 11200-9.1

The massive, yet still very mobile, Liebherr 11200-9.1 is the world’s tallest and strongest telescopic boom crane. Fully assembled, this impressive piece of equipment can lift up to 1,179 tons, and reach a height of 550 feet with extensions attached. The 18-wheeler truck is powered by an eight-cylinder, 16.2-liter 680 horsepower engine.⁵

See cranes for sale at Ritchie Bros.

Sources:

See also

Crane operator salary in the US and more