Shipping Terminals Purchase Cranes for Container and Bulk Freight Movements

AUSTRIA – IRELAND – OCEANIA – Two crane divisions of materials handling supplier Liebherr are enjoying a successful sales period in the region we know as Oceania when the term is used in its wider sense. Freight terminal specialist DP World, has recently placed orders for its Manila and Melbourne shipping port facilities with Killarney based Liebherr Container Cranes, whilst the company’s Maritime Cranes section has witnessed recent sales in both Australia and New Zealand making 2013 a very successful year according to the company.

A ship to shore crane on order for Manila is identical in size to a pair of Liebherr ship to shore container cranes commissioned in 2011 at the ATI run port. The cranes feature a waterside outreach of 44.5 metres, a back reach of 12 metres and a safe working load under twin lift spreader of 60 tonnes with the lift height ‘over rail’ is 31 metres. The crane will form part of expansion plans for Manila’s South Harbour with investment of almost $1 billion planned over the next three years.

Two rubber tyre gantry cranes, also planned for the port, feature Liebherr’s variable speed drive, stack 1 over 6 high-cube containers and span six containers wide and a truck lane. Lift height is 21 metres and the RTG’s feature 2 wheels per corner and have a safe working load of 41 tonnes. The machines have Liebherr’s unique 8 rope reeving no-sway system and simultaneous motion of all drives which the company insists allows the RTG to attain productivity levels of up to 40% greater than alternative models.

The gantry cranes benefit from a host of other state of the art features including whisker anti-collision, laser anti-collision and truck anti-lifting systems. An advanced digital global positioning system (DGPS) is complemented by auto steering, a stack profiling system featuring a safe path calculator for the spreader and a truck positioning system further boosting productivity.

2013 has been a good year for Liebherr Maritime Cranes in the Oceania region, with deliveries of mobile harbour cranes, ship to shore container cranes, and straddle carriers to the area. Ship to shore container cranes have been delivered in Tauranga, New Zealand and Melbourne, Australia, while Liebherr straddle carriers are now operational in Tauranga and another New Zealand port, Lyttelton. In addition to the recently commissioned ship to shore container crane for DP World in Melbourne, Australia has made the Liebherr Mobile Harbour Crane flavour of the day, with two LHM 550’s and one LHM 420 handed over to Patrick Stevedoring Pty Ltd in Henderson, Western Australia at the turn of the year.

Also on the Australian west coast, a LHM 280 has been commissioned in Geraldton for operation with the environmental bulk handling system, the Rotabox, while LHM 280’s in both Fremantle and Bunbury are undergoing assembly. All three machines are for the company Qube Ports & Bulk, which provides services and facilities in twenty eight Australian ports. In total, Qube handles more than 40 million tonnes per annum of bulk products and expects volumes to increase. For that reason, a fourth LHM 280 has just been ordered for its Melbourne facility. Todd Emmert, the Director of Qube Bulks in Perth, commented:

“The Geraldton crane is now fully operational and has delivered the promised productivity gains anticipated to support the investment. I’ve known Liebherr for a long time in various ports in Australia, and their machines are always a welcome addition to our operation. The local service through Morrow Equipment means we have an excellent combination of machine and support.”

In total, Liebherr has sold seven advanced mobile harbour cranes to Australia in only twelve months. The LHM 280 is an all-rounder, an 84 tonne unit with 40 metres outreach, available for container, bulk, general and project cargo, its highly flexible propping system has made it a very acceptable option for the older wharves in the region and Gordon Clark, Liebherr sales manager for the Oceania region, was keen to talk about the sales and elaborate on how the company had worked to ensure that bulk handling, which features large across the region, was properly catered for, saying:

“The Australian ports market is riding on the back of a boom in the mining industry, so other projects are still possible. We also have other projects and deliveries scheduled for later in the year, including one to the Pacific Islands. Our machines are adaptable to all kinds of handling products, and the Rotabox is somewhere between a grab application and container handling, so it was no trouble for our experienced designers to come up with suitable solutions. The Rotabox technology is an environmentally friendly bulk handling solution based on a rotating container concept, optimised for mineral concentrates and ores.”

Photo: A bank of Liebherr ship to shore cranes at the ATI terminal in Manila.