his Thomas Index Report is sponsored by American Crane and Equipment, a leading manufacturer of overhead cranes, hoists, and other material handling equipment.

Hello again. This week we’re going to take a look at sourcing activity for Cranes by users of the Thomasnet.com platform. Our data shows that over the past 12 weeks, sourcing activity for this category is up 14% over its historical average.

Our firmographic buyer data shows that the top three industries driving this trend are Construction, Transportation & Logistics, and Oil & Gas.

While the most well-known and visible types of cranes are the tower cranes seen in the skyline of every growing metropolitan area, a huge range of overhead cranes are used across the full spectrum of industry to do such things as load and unload materials, move materials and equipment within a storage facility or factory floor, and move containers at railyards and shipping ports.

As Industry 4.0 redefines the manufacturing space, efficiency and safety are high priorities. Many facilities are implementing overhead cranes to eliminate obstructions and forklift traffic on the factory floor, to minimize human error, and to gain precise control and placement of heavy loads.

Read the entire article in Thomasnet.com here.