Los Angeles-based Continental Crane Co. last week was appointed the exclusive West Coast distributor for Kobelco Cranes, a leading manufacturer of crawler cranes that has increased its presence in the North American market significantly in recent years.

Continental Crane Co. represents the Japanese manufacturer in the states of California, Oregon and Washington. It offers customers full product support from locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

“No manufacturer in the world produces more crawler cranes than Kobelco and we are delighted to be working with them,” said Mike Rice, manager of Continental Crane Co.

“Our sales in North America have grown six-fold since 2002, which is double the three-fold growth seen in the market as a whole over that period,” said Jack Fendrick, vice president of Kobelco Cranes North America. “With our expanded dealer network, we expect to grow our market share further.”

Continental Crane Co. takes delivery of its first machines, the CK850-III and CK1000-III models, in September 2008. These have rated capacities of 85 tons and 100 tons respectively. Additional machines, including units of the 160-ton CK1600-II and the 250-ton CK2500-II, will be delivered in spring 2009.