Perhaps that’s why the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the bulk materials handling business finally expect to have some serious numbers to move in 2011 as coal and iron ore demand grow amid soaring prices. Add to that a rising demand for biofuels, especially in the United States, and recovery is not out of the question. Some of the surge in resource demand has been due to flooding in coal-rich Queensland, but the future still looks brighter than at any time for the past 18 months or so. Coal and iron ore demand are tipped to know no boundaries as the global steel industry fires its boilers even further in 2011 after world crude steel production jumped 15% over 2009 to a record 1.414 million tonnes in 2010. And with bulk raw materials flowing around the world with renewed vigour, there’ll be greater need for handling equipment such as circular stacker-reclaimers.
Sandvik record
For Sandvik Global Product Line Manager, Thomas Jabs, the recovery in bulk materials handling started to regain momentum in the second half of 2010. “A lot of projects that had been on hold during 2009 were restarted in 2010,” he says. “This also showed in a record breaking order intake for the Sandvik materials handling business in 2010.” Jabs says there are still projects being dusted off after the global financial crisis and some will reach the tendering stage in 2011, while new investment plans are already showing up on the horizon. “All in all the prospects for 2011 are good.” Sandvik made some organisational layoffs in 2010 and was helped through challenging times by a healthy order backlog in the materials handling business, which “kept us from running idle,” says Jabs. “On the other hand we turned a threatening situation into the opportunity to take a deep breath and critically review where we were after years of growth; we had to readjust our sights to what we are really good at – customer focus, solution providing, and market presence.” For circular stacker-reclaimers specifically, 2010 was “a little slow in terms of new machines,” however, but Sandvik did complete some major after-market repairs on client machines. “This is an area that we see constantly growing, and the demand for professional and safely executed repair work, preferably by the OEMs, is clearly increasing,” says Jabs. As for future trends, Jabs says Sandvik sees a tendency to even bigger installations and higher export capacities in almost all commodities. “This asks for larger machines, higher output, and higher reliability and long term performance. As well, the requirement to make the installations constantly safer to provide a healthy working environment is a factor that we are also addressing in our new developments,” he adds.
Good start
Another manufacturer who had a solid 2010 was BRUKS Rockwood Inc, the successful 2008 merger of Sweden’s BRUKs with North America’s Rockwood, and while it wasn’t a record year there was “a lot more activity in 2010 than there was in 2009.” That’s the feeling of Christopher Duffy, Eastern North America Sales Manager for the worldwide company, who says while North America isn’t completely out of the recession there were no real surprises in 2010. And as 2011 unfolds, Duffy says BRUKS Rockwood has made “a pretty good start” and is exceeding expectations so far. The buzz of excitement for one of the world’s largest makers of circular stacker-reclaimers rests in the bioenergy field with wood yard projects and other bioenergy industry renewal projects, bioenergy power plants up to 50 megawatts for smaller US utilities, and even some larger coal conversions to biomass. The workhorse of BRUKS Rockwood is the Circular Overpile Stacker-reclaimer (COSR) and installations now date back to the 1970s. Its overpile chain reclaimer (OCR) provides for smaller storage volumes, especially in the bio fuel energy market and comes in three main sizes suitable for small bio mass plants to wood pellet plants ranging from 400,000 cubic feet to 1 million cubic feet. Projects larger than 1 million and up to 6 million have six different styles to choose from. BRUKS Rockwood claims to have about 90% of the circular stacker-reclaimer business in the United States. Most of its COSRs and OCRs are typically open pile operations, but domed structures are sometimes the customer preference in sensitive areas. Duffy says open or closed has more to do with climate for most rather than dusting or other environmental worries. BRUKS Rockwood also has a third option – its patent-pending Air-MAX, a circular blending bed stacker-reclaimer with air-supported belt conveyor technology – developed to provide a cost effective method of material storage while achieving blended material reclaim.
European view
In Germany, another major circular stacker-reclaimer maker, Forderanlagen Magdeburg (FAM) had a record setting 2008, but saw the bottom fall out of its worldwide market efforts in 2009 as the global recession hit hard. And 2010 was a bit slower again, giving no real hope into 2011 unless steel making around the world gains even greater momentum. FAM rarely sells its circular stacker-reclaimer as a single unit, but can do if needed. Most of its work, according to Ulrich Schneider, Director of Sales, is supplying the bulk handling equipment for a complete cement or power plant and the circular stacker-reclaimer is only one part of it. “We have a range of products in cement, power plants and open cast mining and we are quite happy with our sales figures from last year,” he adds. Not surprisingly, FAM is chasing two or three huge projects this year worth from Euro 30 to Euro 50 million for a complete plant operations and also stockyard systems, with circular stacker-reclaimers being part of the focus. Schneider sees the benefits of the circular stacker-reclaimers in coal fired power plants, where coal supplies are drawn from different countries and may need blending because of differing calorific values or ash content. He says some countries like Taiwan have moved from open storage to closed storage especially in cement plants and power plants because of tougher environmental requirements and weather c
onditions.
Korean success
In Germany, there are now six or seven power plants using circular stacker-reclaimers and the newer plants require enclosed buildings because of dust concerns and higher environmental standards. FAM has also enjoyed success in Korea with five iron ore projects in recent years and these stockpiles have been enclosed because of closeness to the sea and rough weather, or for blending or environmental concerns. FAM is hoping for a boost in iron ore industry volumes around the world because it has had continuous success there, says Schneider. And he sees China’s appetite for raw materials growing even further. FAM plans to work more and more with China, even if it isn’t for “the whole cake” because of the pricing pressure that country can bring. So far, Chinese buyers are sourcing FAM parts for cement plants because “they are happy with our equipment they’ve seen in Japan and Vietnam.” With Germany intent on closing its coal-fired power plants, an avenue of business has closed to FAM, says Schneider. He predicts that about 90% of business in future will be international with new energy resources being developed in South Africa, Australia and South America. FAM has also been looking at oil sands opportunities in Canada.
Emerging player
In China, a more than 20-year-old company emerging as a player among the OEMs as a builder of circular stacker-reclaimers is the De-Ying company in the Pinghu Economic Development Zone, Zhejiang Province, which has 35 machines in operation largely domestically. However, the company has 11 circular stacker-reclaimer sales in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Sudan. De-Ying is also enjoying growing success with its range of bridge scraper reclaimers, sidelong scraper reclaimers and sidelong cantilever stackers. The company boasts it combines the technical know-how of more than 20 Chinese research institutes and science academies in developing and refining its product range. Much of its reputation comes as a tower crane supplier, but other major products include with luffing cranes, bucket wheel stacker-reclaimers, flat-top cranes, and circular stacker-reclaimers.
Metso Minerals
One North American based builder of bulk materials handling equipment, Metso Minerals of Pittsburgh, has had an “extremely busy 2010,” but not for circular stacker-reclaimers as a separate entity. “We are swamped with everything else, we are so busy with dumpers,” explains Rich Schmitz, Vice President Products & Bulk Materials Handling. The company is enjoying big volumes in Australia, India and Brazil – over 100 bulk handling machines of various kinds. For Metso, circular stacker-reclaimers are a niche product originally developed for the pulp and paper industry as a low cost alternative stockpiler for the US inland river market. However, with train lengths growing and capacities going from 10,000 to 15,000 tonnes the numbers are now becoming too big for the machines to handle, says Schmitz.
OEMs respond
As buyers of circular stacker-reclaimers face more and more decisions and price considerations, the OEMs will have to respond. Sandvik’s Thomas Jabs sees this as a positive for the industry. “Dust emission, noise emission, energy efficiency and safety are more and more decision-making factors for our customers. This is not only already being seen in specifications and tenders, but they’re also part of internal company targets in a lot of modern operations. At Sandvik, we see this as a very positive development as it pushes the OEMs to new and more modern solutions and innovations.”