Most of the European barge systems are well established and new development is not common. In the United States, nearly 20,000km of inland waterways is maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers and it’s no surprise that the busiest ports by tonnage in the US, the Ports of South Louisiana and Houston, are feeders of the river-canal network. Barges carry 20% of US coal and over 60% of its grain exports with a fleet of almost 4,000 tugs and towboats and 27,000 barges. In Canada, man-made canals have helped commerce for over 200 years centering on the St Lawrence Seaway. But, at least one major barge handling system manufacturer is excited by a new frontier in the world of barging – South America, which has some of the longest rivers on the planet. E-Crane International North America has noted the emergence of a new barge industry in countries such as Argentina, Chile and Colombia.
Hot spot
“We think South America is going to become a real hot spot in the next couple of years,” says Steve Osborne, a mechanical engineer and part of the Belgium-based company’s North American sales and marketing team. “In the last six to 10 weeks we have experienced a big uptake in project inquiries from South America, particularly as the steel industry comes back on line.” Osborne was in Argentina in August commissioning an E-Crane on the Parana River in the north, the second largest river on the continent after the mighty Amazon. The Parana runs 4,880 km through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and so far has two E-Cranes on it handling barges carrying iron ore and agricultural products such as soy meal and wheat. Two other E-cranes work in area steel mills handling scrap metal. The latest commissioning is a triumph for patience as the contract had been put on hold after delivery in 2008 when steel production began to slump. But, now it has been revived and E-Crane sent a team to Argentina a few weeks ago to help in the equipment clean-up ready for startup this summer of a crane with a 24-ton lifting capacity and a production rate of about 1,000 tonnes per hour. Barges are being built in South America in growing numbers, according to Osborne. They are wider and longer than North American varieties and are towed by tugs, offloading their products near the mouths of rivers where processing plants and the bulk of the population are located. It presents a new frontier for those making barge handling systems such as E-Crane, which made a deliberate push into barge handling in 2008 following the world-wide success of its balanced crane systems in ship loading and unloading.
Subdued
For much of the rest of the world, the barge handling system industry is in need of some good news and fresh challenges. “The business has not been completely bad,” says Tomas Kisslinger, Managing Director of Neuero Industrietechnik based in Germany. “We have been busy on several projects, but buyers have a strange feeling that the economy is still not right.” Kisslinger says the global situation can change rapidly and factors such as the recent cutback on exports of Russian grain because of fires and drought has made the market more difficult to predict. Thankfully, Neuero’s order book has been “just enough or more to keep us going.” Neuero has been encouraged by recent inquiries from the Middle East, Russia, Egypt and Libya. While newspapers and television have decided the global economy is already recovering, Kisslinger says it could just be “the next bubble.” He isn’t too confident and says the huge amount of problems created in the recession, such as excessive debt, have not disappeared. In Belgium, Vigan Engineering sales have been slow with “people more afraid about whether the economy will recover or not,” according to Alain de Visscher, Commercial Director. “So far 2010 has been more difficult than 2009 and we don’t really know why.” True orders, not just inquiries for barge handling systems, have not been as good as in 2009. “The recession is still there and there is also a lot of product out there. Decisions are slow.” Those European sentiments also ring true for Mike Schow, Sales Manager for Christianson Systems, in Minnesota, USA, who adds “there is a lot of pricing activity and some interest, but the buying decision is not happening as quickly we would like.” Schow says the recession is still being felt, but he’s hoping buying decisions will be made by 2011 when he expects the economy will have recovered somewhat.
Contract successes
Despite the apparent reluctance of industry confidence to return, major barge handling system manufacturers have still had numerous recent contract successes. ThyssenKrupp Foerdertechnik, of Germany, won a contract in February 2010 for the design and supply of a coal-handling plant in Indonesia. The big order included a new generation continuous barge unloader capable of 700 tonnes per hour servicing barges ranging from 7,000 tonnes to 10,000 tonnes while working up to 18 hours a day 330 days of the year. The wheeled unloader can travel along the length of the barge and reclaims using a chain bucket elevator, hinged onto the slewing and luffing boom. ThyssenKrupp’s Vice-President, Sales, Dr Wei Ye, says the coal handling plant contract also includes a circular stacker-reclaimer and conveyors. The order is on behalf of Pupuk Kaltim a key player in Indonesia’s fertiliser industry for Bontang Fertiliser at its Kalimantan, Borneo boiler plant complex. Ye says the big contract for the environmental friendly coal handling system represents “continuity with respect to design, manufacturing, construction and management for high efficiency and environmental protection of material handling equipment and systems.” He believes the order also demonstrates the client’s appreciation and satisfaction with ThyssenKrupp’s performance to date on other similar projects in the region.
Biomass
Vigan has had success in the growing move by companies around the world to handling biomass as an alternative and renewable source of energy, particularly with co-firing with coal. Its project for Electrabel (part of the Suez Group) in Gelderland, Holland, powered up earlier this year included a 500 tonne per hour pneumatic barge unloader to handle wood pellets. Vigan’s de Visscher says the NIV 600 model barge unloader employs the latest in technology with three turbo blowers controlled by speed variators maximising suction capabilities; it has special alloys to protect against wear in the elbow between the vertical and horizontal suction pipes and in the airlock components; and it uses an air jet system for automatic filter cleaning. No dust is emitted as the whole unloading system is under negative pressure and/ or totally enclosed. And a single operator manages the whole unloading operation of the wood pellets. Neuero has had some small installations along European rivers recently, including a 250 tonne pneumatic barge unloader in Mannheim, Germany, which is split by the Rhine and Neckar Rivers. The unloader handles wheat for a local flour mill and has a 120-tonne per hour capacity.
Australia success
Elsewhere, E-Crane Europe has supplied two 2,500tph E-Cranes mounted on a barge to a Citic Pacific magnetite project at Pilbara in northwest Australia, reports Bas Tolhuizen, the company’s International Sales Manager. It’s Australia’s largest magnetite project and the dual crane system will be used to unload the material from 16,000 tonne, flat-bed barges into hoppers; it will then travel by conveyor belt to a boom conveyor which will load the material onto Cape-size vessels. A further two cranes mounted on a second barge are expected to be in operation by 2012. And in Bangladesh, E-Crane Europe will deliver a barge-mounted crane to a sugar refinery. In another contract, E-Crane Europe supplied a barge-mounted dredger with a 400 cubic meter an hour capacity, which is now in service around Rotterdam and Ostend.
Smaller machines
For Christianson Systems in the US, the major interest is coming in its line of smaller Super Portable barge unloading machines, typically with a
capacity of 80 to 170 tonnes per hour. While it manufactures large Super Tower shipunloaders with a capacity of 600tph, Christianson’s Schow says the poor economy is to blame for the greater interest in small barge handling machines. The Minnesota company has had recent successes in Vietnam with the sales of two small Super Portables handling soya bean meal and fish meal at around 80 to 100tph. Two further machines are likely. And a 120-150tph mobile unloader has been placed in the Philippines with other sales pending. And as for trends in his 20-plus years with Christianson, Schow says he’s noticed a move away from clam shell unloading, which once used to be the norm for barges worldwide. In the past decade, environmental considerations for dust and spillage have changed the industry and barge handling systems are now most likely to be pneumatic devices such as the company’s Vac-U-Vator 4090, which is its most popular barge unloading system domestically and abroad, particularly for bulk agricultural products.
New drive
Meanwhile, Neuero is experimenting with a new type of drive for its barge handling systems and Kisslinger says further details will be released once the tests are completed. He describes the new drive type as “evolutionary rather than revolutionary” but predicts it will make life easier for operators and owners. Aware that much of Europe’s barge handling equipment is “old or older,” the German-based company is pushing system upgrades bringing clients lower energy costs, increased capacity and environmental benefits. New regulations make it more difficult to make the jump to new equipment, but Kisslinger says it is still easy to upgrade. “We have very solid reliable equipment and we have vast experience in this type of business,” adds Kisslinger. “We do everything focussed on our clients and we can’t be successful without them being satisfied.” ThyssenKrupp recently upgraded a coking plant at Duisburg, including a fixed jib slewing crane to unload coal barges arriving from Rotterdam. The project involved upgrading existing equipment and offered limited scope to change the configuration of the unloading quay, which would have been necessary if new equipment such as a continuous barge unloader was installed.
InnovationsNew drives, revolutionary blowers . . . get the headlines, but in reality innovations in barge handling systems are usually small modifications to equipment every year, much like car manufacturers upgrade their models from year to year, says de Visscher of Vigan. The Belgium company launched its Simporter barge handling system two to three years ago and has modified its models since then with better machine reliability and improved materials. In one recent new development, Caterpillar updated two of its wheeled handlers, as it calls them, to make them more proficient in barge unloading. The CAT M325D MH and LMH models now sport a new, but still optional, 9.9 meter cambered boom, which offers superior reach into barges – now in the 14.3 to 15.6 meter range. And both models can also be equipped with a solid state generator, which CAT says provides superior reliability because of its soft start system and overheating protection, while bringing lower maintenance costs and improved serviceability. A new, automatic reversing fan system, which purges dirt, dust and airborne debris from the cooling system of the barge unloaders, is also available.