The idea is not new. Inland waterways have been using barges for centuries in what is seen as the oldest form of heavy industrial/commercial transportation, but with increasing emphasis on short-sea shipping and opening new waterways, the idea is gaining new momentum. “Maybe greater emphasis should be given to take out the trucks from the road in favour of water transportation,” says Tomas Kisslinger, Managing Director of German-based Neuero Industrietechnik, one of the world leaders in barge handling systems, specialising in grain, meals, biomass and other special products. “We know the governments have flooded the markets with money, but the next crisis is knocking on the door with more intensity,” he says. “The symptoms of the problem have been relieved by pumping money into the market, but this does not solve the problem; it only creates a bigger one for later solution.” Barges roam over 20,000 kilometers of inland waterways in North America and cover a well-established 37,000 kilometer of rivers in Europe offering the lowest cost of transporting goods when compared to rail and truck. In fact, the Inland Rivers Ports and Terminals Association (IRPT) in the US says the numbers make sense – one gallon of fuel enables one tonne of cargo to be carried 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by rail, and an outstanding 514 miles by barge. Add to that the facts that such water transport has the fewest accidents of the three transport methods, offers the lowest energy form of transportation, is quiet and relatively unobtrusive, and it does not experience congestion problems, nor cause traffic snarls for others.
India switch
The message is not lost on India where the state-run power company NTPC has signed a recent agreement with the Inland Water Authority to barge coal from the east coast to a power plant located at Farakka, West Bengal, using the country’s inland waterways instead of rail. Coal by barge is expected to begin in mid 2012 and the agreement is seen as a breakthrough for logistics in the crowded country, which normally depends on rail and truck to move its goods and bulk along somewhat strangled routes. As an NPTC spokesperson said in announcing the barge agreement in August: “Considering the current constraints of the Indian port sector this project is bound to bring a paradigm shift in the import of dry bulk cargo in the Indian shipping sector.” The project includes the operation of the largest barge fleet in India along National Waterway No 1, which connects Haldia and Allahabad and is expected to promote the wider use of inland waterways in that country.
Sales successes
And this is all good news to a global barge handling industry that has been treading water for the past couple of years in a market that has been described as “extremely dynamic.” Major contracts have been slow to get ink to paper, although this year inquiries are showing a healthy surge . . . unless the world plunges back into recession as some financial experts expect. Overall, 2010 was little more than average year for most makers of barge handling systems and 2011 has yet to rise much above that. Sales are few and far between judging by the muted response to talk openly about them. But, E-Crane International of Belgium and its North American arm is installing a two-winch barge unloading system, which will shuttle barges on a continuous cable, at a coal-fired chemical plant for PPG Natrium in West Virginia. E-Crane Project Co-ordinator, Aaron Bennett, says the new barge handling system replaces an old shuttle barge system and allows the operator to move the barges while unloading them two abreast. All should be up and running by the end of 2011. As for 2011 and beyond, Bennett says there have been “plenty of inquiries” for three or four different barge handling systems as a complement to E-Cranes and at least two were looking “pretty strong” for the company, which has remained buoyant despite the lingering global recession. And another with sales successes, ThyssenKrupp Foerdertechnik (TKF) in Germany, won an order in 2010 for the design and supply of a coal handling plant in Kalimantan, Borneo, for Pupuk Kaltim, one of Indonesia’s leading fertiliser companies. The project involves a continuous barge unloader (CBU), as well as a circular stacker and a reclaimer system, plus associated conveyor belting. TKF is introducing a new generation of continuous barge unloader for the Kaltim project with a designed unloading rate of 700 tonnes per hour of coal from barges ranging in size from 7,000 to 10,000 tonnes. The German company set a milestone for high capacity CBUs with the installation of a 4,000 tph barge unloading system for the Botang Coal Terminal in Indonesia. While it was the first of its kind in Indonesia, the critical components were common to other CBUs – over 50 have also been supplied by TKF mostly to clients in Korea, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, the USA, the UK, Spain and Germany. Late in 2010, TKF won another CBU contract in Indonesia for a 3,000 tph coal handling unit for the Arutmin North Pulau Laut Coal Terminal of PT Nusa Tambang Pratama, part of the Bakrie Group.
Working harder
However, having to work harder for sales in the past few years has led to innovation as barge handling systems become more and more sophisticated, environmentally friendly, and even simpler to use. Neuero, for example installed its first blower unit in a combined barge loader and unloader unit for the Kampfmeier Mill in Mannheim, Germany. Kisslinger says the new blower is directly coupled to the motor and there is no need for pulleys, V-belts or universal cardan units, and has the benefit of increasing the efficiency of the power installed. Speed is controlled by a frequency inverter.
In a recent development, Neuero has introduced a new pneumatic shipunloader for biomass for a power plant in the Netherlands as more and more such facilities explore biomass as an alternative to traditional fuels such as coal in an effort to reduce CO2 emissions. The barge unloader has a capacity of up to 600 tonnes an hour and is equipped with a special rotary feeder. Another German company, the Buhler Group with its Schmidt-Seeger GmbH unit, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional technologies for the management of bulk products and is having continuing success with its Bargolink™ product which it bills as the future of inland waterway transport. Buhler for the first time is offering its mechanical shipunloaders for barge traffic. Through Bargolink barges up to 3,000 deadweight tonnes (common on the Rhine and Danube Rivers) can be unloaded, says Robert Haymoz, R&D Manager Marketsegment Terminals. “The stationary unit is fixed on the pier, the barge is automatically towed by winches, taking the role of moving the barge for continuous unloading,” says Haymoz. “The mobile version on rails is equipped with a travelling gear, allowing the barge to stay fixed at the pier.” Bargolink enables customised terminal plants taking into account specific customer requirements such as space available for the unloader and the barge. A fixed mounted sweeper is hinged to allow movement to equalise with the barge or ship incline.Haymoz says Bargolink with its continuous operation and low conveying speeds ensures there is no grain breakage and no dust emissions, while using about one third of the power compared to traditional pneumatic barge unloaders. Already three new customers in China, Croatia and France have ordered Bargolink and with Buhler represented in over 140 countries interest is growing. Meanwhile, Gottwald Port Technology GmbH is a trusted name with repeat orders. In July 2011, Gottwald, a subsidiary of Demag Cranes AG and now part of the growing Terex Group thanks to a recent acquisition deal, introduced a new weighing system for harbour and floating cranes which is verifiable for legal metrology readings and allows fast, accurate billing during crane operation. Gottwald developed the innovative weighing system to satisfy demands for further improvements in handling and weighin
g efficiency and accuracy. The new verifiable weighing system is installed on the crane and enables dynamic weighing of bulk materials in the grab during crane operation. Once the system has registered the correct weight of the bulk material, the crane operator continues with full performance to complete the process as normal. The Gottwald system has won EU approval as a verifiable automatic weighing instrument.
Repeat orders
Floating cranes are becoming an increasingly common part of the barge scene especially on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, and Gottwald Port Technology won a contract to supply two more floating cranes to St James Stevedoring Partners and will have them in service this Fall. The stevedore has a fleet of six Gottwald floating cranes at present. The two new Model 8 variant G HPK 8400 B floating cranes will be used for the trans-shipment of bulk goods to and from barges and will handle loads up to 100 tonnes for such commodities as ores, coal, cereals and fertilisers from vessels up to Baby-Capesize. They boast the highest performance 63-tonne grab curve that Gottwald has installed on a floating crane, making them the largest and highest-performing floating cranes of their kind on the Lower Mississippi River. In February 2010, Associated Terminals LLC, also in Louisiana, took delivery of a Gottwald Generation 5 G HPK 6400 B floating crane, which is being used for trans-shipping a variety of cargoes including bulk materials and general cargo from large ocean-going vessels to Mississippi River barges. And, Belgium’s Vigan Engineering continues to have success in the pneumatic barge unloading area with a recent contract for a 400 tph unit for the Port of Sete in France. With many installations in Belgium, Holland, France and Germany to its credit in the past few years, Vigan is doing its bit to keep trucks off the roads. The new barge unloader will be delivered by the end of the year and is designed to ease the arrival of grains from the French hinterland by barge for onward shipment on larger vessels, mainly destined for Africa and the Middle East.