Crane-spotting reveals industry highs and lows
Is it a bird or is it a crane? The number of residential cranes may have dropped, but the non-residential crane count has risen by 42 per cent, according to the 12th edition of RLB’s Crane Index.
The RLB Crane Index, published by Rider Levett Bucknall twice a year, tracks the numbers of cranes in key Australian cities.
Each RLB office physically counts all fixed cranes on their city’s skyline, and the index provides a simplified measure of the construction industry’s workload in each location.
The number of cranes fell by just one – to 684 – for the second quarter of 2018, a drop of 0.15 per cent on the fourth quarter of 2017.
The crane count has risen by 4.5 per cent since the second quarter of 2016.
Residential cranes have dropped by 10 per cent since the fourth quarter of 2017. Offsetting this loss is a stronger non-residential sector, with the number of cranes rising from 117 to 166, representing a 42 per cent increase.
RLB’s index is backed up by recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics which recorded a 2.4 per cent fall in residential building work year-on-year for 2017, but a 7.8 per cent increase in non-residential work.
The current crane count was the highest on record for Melbourne, up seven to 158. Perth recorded a 4.8 per cent increase in cranes, with eight new cranes taking the total to 33.
In contrast, two cranes were taken down in Adelaide, leaving 15 hard at work, while Sydneysiders can now see 346 cranes on the skyline, down from 3 in RLB’s previous index.
In Brisbane, RLB says the mining sector slowdown and cooling apartment market has led to a 21 per cent drop in crane numbers – a drop from 85 at last count to 67 currently.
For the first time, the index includes cranes observed on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, with 10 cranes dotting the skyline.
“Three quarters of Australian cranes were located in Sydney and Melbourne. Currently Sydney has 51 per cent of all cranes erected nationally, while Melbourne contributed 23 per cent and Brisbane 10 per cent,” the report reveals.
Download RLB’s Crane Index Q2 2018.