A fundamental principle in the trading of raw material is that efficient logistics in a supply chain allow lower delivery costs, ultimately making the supplier and the price of the final product more competitive. To achieve such results there are several aspects to keep in mind while approaching possible improvements to an existing situation or reasoning on a green-field project, and one of these is experience. Experience is the plus factor that gives the possibility of having a global view over the supply chain development, making the difference when you want to make the best of the whole process.
Off-shore terminals
The ingredients that make a port project economically viable are the availability of a large amount of commodity to be handled, shore-infrastructures (for example railways), water depth at site and large flat areas for commodity handling and storage. Nowadays, dry-bulk producers and dealers face the difficulty of exporting and/or importing their commodity as open land next to deep water is not easily available and dredging is an environmentally sensitive issue that usually causes concerns within the local community.
Subsequently, the construction of new deep-water ports is expensive and time consuming.
As a result, commodity producers and end-users are penalised compared to those that can rely on the necessary infrastructure to accommodate larger vessels. In these cases a viable alternative solution to overcome such restrictions could be the use of trans-shipping solutions, which can give a real boost to the efficiency of the supply and open up new sea gateways, becoming critical logistical links in the industrial supply chain. Logmarin has been involved in most of the major trans-shipment operations around the world, advising, devising and designing different logistical solutions for these particular situations. Over the last 12 months, six new floating terminals have been delivered, including the world largest floating hub, bringing the fleet “of floating hub solutions” designed by Logmarin to 17 units. Three more units are at various construction stages and will be delivered during the first quarter 2013. Such results have given Logmarin a leading position in this market niche, as their solutions have proven themselves to be reliable and efficient demonstrated by the over 50 million tonnes of dry-bulk commodities exported and/or imported in the last 12 months through their “solutions.” For Logmarin, 2012 was a year of strong progress and achievements in the supply chain sector both on-shore and off-shore. Three different logistical solutions implemented during the year ranged from the “simplest” to the ‘biggest’ ever built taking into consideration their efficiency and focusing, in particular, on performance, cost and energy consumption.
Largest floating terminal
Earlier this year Logmarin delivered the world’s largest floating terminal ever built to mining giant Vale.
The company was looking to overcome restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities of a 350.000dwt limit in their ports preventing the use of their Valemax (a 400.000dwt vessel) from entering. To by-pass the restrictions Vale decided for a “Plan B”; a floating hub enabling them to trans-ship iron ore from the Valemax onto Capesize feeders. Logmarin got involved in all the stages of the “Plan B” from the feasibility study to assistance in the commissioning, including site selection, engineering, procedures and check-lists. The Ore Fabrica, a 285,000 tonnes buffer storage trans-shipper, equipped with Liebherr cranes and Bedeschi conveyor system and travelling ship-loader with a design capacity of 5,000tph, was delivered in February and operates in Subic Bay, Philippines. The entire project from design to delivery took 333 days to complete.
Innovative solution
Another project in which Logmarin implemented some innovative solutions was on the floating terminal the Queen of Jade. Named in July and delivered by Keppel Batangas Shipyard in the Philippines her design is different from conventional floating cranes. A small buffer storage protected by a retaining bulkhead, allows the stowage of about 3,000 tonnes, useful for balancing and trimming of the ocean going vessel.
In addition, the vessel is equipped with a passive system to amortise the rolling and pitching movements, allowing operations in adverse weather conditions. Installed is the most efficient single crane on the market, consuming only a glass of (MDO) fuel every tonnes of coal loaded, and the position of it on the ship provides a perfect balance between cargo, power and speed. The average daily loading rate exceeds 24,000 tonnes and in one day the vessel handled over 27,000 tonnes. The Queen of Jade carries the Indonesian flag, is registered to the maritime authority of Jakarta and classed by Rina.
Floating terminal
Delivered in October the floating terminal FC Vittoria is operating in Indonesia enhancing the Kideco coal export. Like her twin Princess Chloe (supporting the coal sales of Berau since March 2011), it has two heavy-duty Liebherr cranes which work in conjunction with a cargo handling
system comprising of hoppers, conveyors and a ship-loader that perform at an average daily rate exceeding 50,000 tonnes (that is 60% higher than the contractual one). The swivelling and telescopic capability of the ship-loader ensures serving multiple holds of the ocean going vessels minimising the need of the floating terminal to move alongside. The luffing mechanism of the ship-loader is used to cater to the difference in the air draft of the ocean going vessel at ballast to fully laden condition. At the ship-loader end a movable trimming chute is fitted to ensure delivery of coal into all corners of the ocean going vessel’s holds. Vittoria is double bowed and has, therefore, the possibility of operating on both sides of the vessel to load/unload – even in choppy seas. The cranes are strategically placed to minimise the slewing movement, thereby increasing the cycle time and efficiency thus reducing energy consumption. The experience gained in the field together with the new technologies applied give clients the benefit of a performance monitoring system implemented by Logmarin that provides valuable feed-back on the operations of the existing terminals. Such system enables the constant refining of designs…”everything can always be done better than it is being done” (Ford 1922).
Moving forward
In Queensland, Australia, Logmarin is currently involved in a Mitchell group project which is at the Environmental Approval Stage and foresees a final amount of 22 million tonnes of coal per year to be handled in the Great Marine Barrier Reef area (which is an UNESCO heritage site). On one hand, given the site the protection of the environment is pushed to the most positive limit at all stages of the design; on the other hand efficiency still is the target. The chosen logistics solution, proposed by Logmarin, is an articulated tug and barge combination, with a catamaran floating terminal to minimise the environmental impact. As the operations will be carried out in the area of the Capricorn Tropic, the vessel has been named Capricorn CAT, to further symbolise the environment’s presence in the mind of the designers. All features foreseen on the Capricorn Cat are designed to prevent spillage and pollution. Every detail is aimed to the protection of the Great Barrier Reef Park fauna, flora and water including the grabs, the spill plates, the tunnel conveyors and transfer points, the ship loaders, the hoppers, the drainage collection facility, settling tanks, paint and lighting to name a few.
Open minded thinking
To achieve the best possible results, each supply chain needs to be considered as unique but avoiding the application of standard solutions means there are almost infinite options to be evaluated. A solid knowledge of the markets, the material handled, the technical and operative know-how are fundamental to produce a solution delivering value to the client as only such characteristics can allow a focussed and proper understanding of the challenges faced by the commodity producer or dealer. Worldwide (commodity) players, such as Kepco, EDF, ENEL, Egat, Marubeni, Kinder Morgan, Vale, Mitchell Group, Noranda, Sakari Energy, have all opted for Logmarin’s support to design or to improve efficiency in their commodity supply chain. As a result, the company itself has a track record in applying solutions in USA, Europe, Australia, Africa, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Logmarin is proud to have won a design contract for the supply chain for a Japanese/Korean Consortium selected as preferred party to build, own and operate a coal fired power plant in Vietnam. It is also involved in three green-field power plant projects in Thailand and is involved in a logistic terminal for a new steel mill in Indonesia, which is at a preliminary feasibility stage.
Planning – not guessing
To compete and succeed in today’s economy, suppliers and industry players must understand the economic trade-offs of their decisions and act accordingly. “Part of Logmarin’s role is to make our customers more aware of the advantages arising from a global view of the supply chain providing customised solutions,” says Mario Terenzio, Managing Director of Logmarin. To support clients in the decision making process during the development of a new supply chain or the improvement of an existing one, the company has customised a commercial software system to analyse the key resources (rings) of the end-to-end supply chain, like mine production, in-land transportation (trains and trucks), stockpile management (single product/client or multi-users/qualities), shore terminal (intermediate river terminal or marine port), river and/or sea ways (barges, tugs, floating terminal, ships features and freight), end-users facility, etc. as the case may be. All the above rings of the supply chain have to operate in an integrated manner to ensure overall efficiency allowing savings in the delivery costs of the commodity. Therefore the bottlenecks of each of the rings including production requirements, storage capacity, external traffic, weather conditions, tide variation, dredging requirement, random arrival of the vessels, shipping market fluctuation, port and river constraints, breakdowns, etc. all have to be duly investigated and their interactions analysed to determine the most efficient supply chain solution.
The main application of the customised Dynamic Supply Chain Simulator Software (LOG.DES) is to be found in mine-to-port, port-to-port and port-to-industry logistic chains. Projects in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia have already benefited from the results of applying LOG.DES. It enables the user to represent a real world process in a dynamic animated computer model and then experiment on alternative “what-if” scenarios to identify the optimal solutio
n also by way of cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the advantages the client will accrue from the envisaged solution(s) implementation. In short, using LOG.DES to simulate (10 years) the entire supply chain in great detail prevents the end-user from incurring unnecessary costs (Capex and Opex) and helps to minimise the environmental impact while achieving the desired target.
When planning a new project development or the improvement of an existing one, working with clients, side-by-side is essential to produce targeted valuable solutions. From the identification of bottlenecks to brainstorming for ways to overcome them, from the designing stage to the final implementation and commissioning, Logmarin believes in team-working.