Some, such as Kovako Materials Handling in Holland, even saw the recession as a time of unprecedented opportunity. A year later, it appears that the damage wasn’t as bad as what might have been expected. Most avoided layoffs or plant closures. Market leading, Swedish-based Cargotec, for example, took a hit but overall the mobile shipunloader business was only “slightly slower” in 2009 than it was in the heady days of 2008, which was seen as a good year. “A boom tests company strength, but the lean times do even more so,” says Cargotec Executive Vice President, Olli Isotalo. Another industry giant, German-based Buhler AG reported only a 5.5% drop in new orders in 2009 for all group business as a whole.
2010 better
In Holland at Van Aalst Bulk Handling, Hans Van Est, Sales Manager, says: “Our 2009 was not a good year, but, 2010 looks much better.” The Dutch company didn’t sit around waiting for the hoped-for recovery, but instead jumped into other markets such as the recycling industry and conveyor units to keep its workforce busy. In fact, Van Aalst developed a long-distance conveyor system with low or no wear characteristics and later reused the concept in the cement industry. “It’s always good when we can vary our markets,” adds Van Est. He says the hot markets for Van Aalst have been India and Bangladesh while China and Pakistan are still busy. Van Est expects it will be 2011 before Europe bounces back from the economic shocks of the past year or so in the mobile shipunloader market segment. Rival Cargotec, which has over 70 mobile unloaders sold around the world, also notes Africa and Asia as emerging markets of high interest. While mobile shipunloaders are not likely to be major revenue earners for the bigger manufacturers – bigger ticket items such as mobile harbour cranes or continuous shipunloaders fit that bill – they are an important barometer to how the world economy feels as they reflect the movement of foods such as grains and bulk materials such as cement needed for construction.
Happier
And as 2010 nears its halfway mark, the manufacturers are feeling decidedly happier. The year has been positive so far and orders are coming back to expectations as the market slowly rebuilds a head of steam again. Mobile shipunloaders move everything from coal to grain, cement to animal feeds. They’re highly portable and can be mounted on rubber tyres, dozer-like tracks, barges, or rails. They can feed conveyor systems, waiting trucks or rail cars, and can quickly be moved from dock to dock. The set up times is often less than an hour or can be as little as 15 minutes, according to IBAU Hamburg, of Germany. One of the world’s leading manufacturers, Cargotec, the new grab-all branding strategy for widely-used MacGregor mobile shipunloaders (and its other two brand neighbours in the group, Hiab and Kalmar) reports it secured significant orders despite the global downturn, including contracts to Russia and Spain for two mobile shipunloaders to undisclosed ports.
Stars of Cement
Last year was a big year for Van Aalst in a different way. As the developer of the industry standard first road mobile shipunloader back in the late 1970s, founder Gert Van Aalst received a fitting tribute in January in the form of the Stars of Cement Award in Qatar at the Intercem Conference for his long-standing contributions to the cement industry. As the year progressed, Van Aalst also secured an unusual and highly satisfying project in Panama installing a gantry-mounted mobile shipunloader onto an old lake ship being used for storage because of a lack of port space. The unloader was able to service three different ship holds containing cement, fly ash and additives, as well as unload calling supply ships alongside as part of a electric power plant project in the Changuinola region. “There wasn’t enough space on shore for a storage silo,” explains Van Est of the need for the floating terminal. These days such invention has helped Van Aalst keep up with a changing market dynamic for mobile shipunloaders. Some 8 to 10 years ago at Van Aalst, over 80% of the unloaders sold were road mobiles able to take to the highways and go from port to port. These days, says Van Est, road mobiles are only 20% of the business and more dock mobiles and other larger ship unloaders are being built – they can move around the harbour, but they not equipped to take to the roads. Today, buyers are demanding larger units on rubber-tyred wheels or rail mounted pneumatic unloaders that can handle from 600 to 800 tonnes per hour.
Versatility
The versatility and maneuverability of mobile shipunloaders has been their calling card in recent years. Mobility and flexibility allow port operators to use one mobile shipunloader on several different docks instead of committing to permanent structures at each. Cargotec’s unloaders, which are based on Siwertell screw technology, also require only a single operator — seen as a strong plus along with the unloader’s ability to handle diverse cargoes. In the past year, Cargotec has developed a special version of its mobile shipunloader fleet for handling sulphur. This highly corrosive and at times explosive material saw Cargotec use stainless steel in key contact areas to withstand extreme corrosion. The unit also has 4S, Cargotec’s unique safety system (the Siwertell Sulphur Safety System), which is designed to minimise the risk of explosion and also detect fires. If there is a subsequent explosion, the mobile shipunloader is designed to withstand such forces and also has specially designed explosion flaps. There is also a built-in fire extinguishing system, which automatically starts if a fire is detected.
Going green
The quest for environmentally friendly mobile shipunloaders dominates R&D time these days. Such features as totally enclosed conveyor lines (Siwertell) and modern, fuel efficient diesel engines that comply with the toughest exhaust and noise emission standards are found on most. And it’s possible to get all mobile shipunloaders from makers such as Cargotec with bio-degradable oil and grease. Van Aalst, which specialises in the pneumatic bulk handling of cement, granulated slag, fly ash, china clay and alumina, offers a completely enclosed system from ship to silos or other off-load and their system creates an underpressure in the hold so that powder cargoes are not dusty in handling. Other enviro-friendly and cost-saving features include reduced power consumption through a hurricane aeration system, reduced maintenance costs through the use of pinch valves, reduced forces in the suction arm thanks to a rotating fluidising nozzle, and radio remote control.
Improved
In Germany, IBAU Hamburg uses screw-type mobile shipunloaders, largely in the cement industry, and has improved the unloading capacities of its street-mobile units by 30% in servicing the 5,000dwt and 10,000dwt vessel range. Reduced lifting heights have also cut energy consumption and the company says the compact design has achieved additional cost effectiveness. The two mobile shipunloaders used in this segment have a rated capacity of 400 tph, which is 30% better than the usual output of mechanical shipunloaders and also equals the maximum output of mobile pneumatic shipunloaders, the company claims. The improvement comes through “optimising design and improving the technology.” One of the better performing units is currently being used by Caledonian Slag Cement in Glasgow.
Competition
Not all of the big manufacturers of mobile shipunloaders are in Europe, however. A relatively lesser know company – Hangzhou Yuntian Rong Ye Machinery Equipment Co Ltd (YT) In China – makes a trailer mounted pneumatic unit that uses a standard kingpin and a motor on the trailer to propel itself. YT has been in business for over 20 years and so far has placed over 130 projects for domestic and worldwide clients who need to move powdery bulk materials. Meanwhile, FL Smidth with its Kovako products is aware of the growing competition in Europe and abroad and has develope
d a range of new standard models, which have combined popular capacity needs with ship sizes and platforms (trailer, gantry and skid mounted units). The range goes from road mobile shipunloaders with a nominal capacity of 170tph for ships of 5,000dwt to gantry mounted units of 450tph nominal capacity suited for ships around 40,000dwt. The off-the-floor model range saves customers delivery times and as the cost of engineering is spread over more units, buyers don’t foot the bill for all of the usual engineering costs of their mobile unloader. And German manufacturer Buhler, which expects to have gained market share worldwide in 2009, offers its popular Portanova RSKP models in both stationary and mobile (rail or rubber tyre) variants, boasting a 300 tph capacity in servicing vessels of the 60,000dwt range. Common bulk materials handled include fine and coarse grained as well as mealy and floury materials such as grain, oilseeds, derivatives and animal feeds.