This article was published in July/August 2010 issue of World Port Development. To receive a pdf of the article in its original format including charts and pictures please send an email to archive@worldportdevelopment.com
Rail wagon unloader makers want more than inquiries
The trouble with being in the middle of a worldwide recession is that it’s difficult to find a way out as Ray Dykes reports…
Manufacturers of rail wagon unloaders around the globe are still hoping 2010 will be their year of recovery. Some report a disastrous first half to 2009 that left them reeling and their order books flat or simply blank. “There was a lot of people being very cautious and delaying projects,” says Harry Edelman, Executive Vice President of US company Heyl & Patterson, which has been in the bulk materials handling business for 123 years and has some of its customers still operating machines that are up to 100 years old. However, new equipment inquiries began picking up as 2010 opened with new hope and promise. But, the recession – especially in Europe where not just companies but countries have serious financial difficulties – refuses to go away. Product inquiries don’t necessarily mean product orders and for most manufacturers of rail wagon unloaders (also known as rail car dumpers, tipplers or tippers) only the backlog has saved the day. “We’ve been working through our backlog and inquiries have been picking up,” says Edelman. “But, between backlog and inquiries, we need orders.”
Good time
It’s a good time to buy a rail wagon unloader. For starters delivery times are about as short as they can get, competition among the big players is keen, and buyers can write the book on what they want in customer service. But, all is not lost and the order books might soon be flush again as they were in 2007 and 2008. More and more would-be buyers have commissioned studies and at least one globally experienced engineering consultant sees that as a good sign that orders aren’t far away. “A lot of clients are commissioning study work and that’s usually one of the first things they cut when in difficulties,” says Greg Andrew, Chief Engineer Mechanical, for engineering consultants Worley Parsons in Vancouver BC. “We are being kept busy with study work; things are definitely getting better.” That feeling is echoed in Holland where cement handling specialist Aumund Holding BV is receiving “a reasonable level of new inquiries for wagon tipplers, with one or two promising prospects.” Rail wagon unloaders are not a “flagship product” for Aumund and that makes the surge in recent inquiries even more significant. And while Aumund/Schade, as it is also known, sold no wagon tipplers in 2009 and hasn’t landed a sale yet in 2010, the company says it is hot on the trail of orders in India, Iran and South Africa. “The combination of technical developments at Aumund/Schade, new sales strategies and a slowly strengthening marketplace will see increasing activity for us,” says a company spokesperson.
Top-ranked
Perhaps the top-ranked manufacturer of rail wagon unloaders in the world, Metso Minerals, based in Finland, has had similar experiences of languishing business through 2009 and signs of a welcome recovery in 2010. David Hicken, Vice President of Bulk Materials Handling Global Sales, who covers much of Europe and even South Africa from his United Kingdom office, says that while 2009 was “lean on major contracts” Metso ticked over on doing major service and upgrade work in the United States and Australia. India performed well, however, with a number of new rail wagon dumper contracts. “Our 2010 has improved,” adds Hicken, who visited the Pittsburgh Metso office in July and also South Africa. “We have a number of significant orders for dumper change-outs in the US and orders for new high capacity dumpers in Australia and China. “We are hopeful of further orders from South America, China and Australia later in 2010 and the India continues to do well for us,” says Hicken. And while there’s no mistaking the current climate for a boom as there was in 2007 and 2008, Hicken is confident the market will remain steady. Another of the world’s leading suppliers of rail car dumpers, ThyssenKrupp Fordertechnik GmbH (TKF) of Germany, has weathered the recession storm well, according to Dr Wei Ye, Vice President of Project Sales. And TKF has been successful recently in several port handling projects, which have included rail car unloaders, in Brazil, Australia and Russia.
Largest order
The largest order in company history – a five tandem rail wagon unloader project for Vale’s Tubarao iron ore operations in Brazil – was completed in 2009 after installation began in 2007. That success may have sparked wider interest as TKF’s Brazilian subsidiary located at Belo Horizonte received an order in April 2010 for two tandem wagon unloaders at Porto Sudeste in the State of Rio de Janeiro for LLX Sudeste Operacoes Portuarias LTDA. Dr Ye sees that project as an excellent example of the cross-country cooperation of different TKF subsidiaries, bringing technical know-how coupled with first-hand knowledge of the country. Based on an existing dumper design, the two machines will be organised by both the German and Brazilian subsidiaries, while the electrical, hydraulic and mechanical components will be engineered and supplied from both Germany and Brazil. The rail wagon positioners will be able to handle trains of up to 160 wagons and up to three locomotives. The two rotary tandem dumpers will each be capable of 40 cycles per hour. In another Brazilian order, TKF is working with iron producer CSN on a two dumper order for their Itaguai port development project to be commissioned in 2012. Early engineering design work is underway and Dr Ye says TKF is expecting the actual purchase order from CSN later this year. All work will be shared by the company’s German and Brazilian subsidiaries.
New design
In a third major order, TKF is playing a role in the upgrade of the eastern Russian Port of Posjet, in the Japan Sea, which serves exports of coal to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia for the Mechel Group. ThyssenKrupp is supplying all of the bulk material handling for the port upgrade including two side discharge coal car dumpers; a shiploader, two bucket wheel stacker-reclaimers, crushing and a complete conveyor system including all galleries, transfer towers and conveyor bridges. The customer Mechel chose side discharge unloaders over rotary coal car dumpers so that the receiving hoppers are kept flat to reduce the costs of civil works and to avoid the influence of high level ground water. Using one rail line, the new port coal handling system will have a total throughput of 7 million tonnes a year. TKF designers have devised new concept twin side discharge car dumpers with 75 tonne payload, which can reach a maximum cycle time of 20 wagons per hour each to a maximum of 3,000 tonnes per hour
Good start to 2010
Meanwhile, another European rail wagon unloader maker, Tenova-TAKRAF of Italy, has had a good start to 2010 with two contracts for two wagon dumpers in Iran. The iron ore dumpers for MSE Co will be built by the Italian company’s German manufacturing facilities, according to Pietro Bibolini, Tenova-TAKRAF’s Commercial Director. Tenova TAKRAF is also in the hunt for projects from Brazilian iron ore giant Vale, which is venturing into coal mining in at least one project that involves mine facilities, railway construction, and port facilities. A preliminary tender call has gone out for rail wagon unloaders, conveyors and a shiploader. “There’s tough competition, all of the major suppliers are seeking to win the project and we are vying for the entire contract including the rail wagon dumpers,” says Bibolini.
Innovations
Meanwhile, the revolution in rail car dumper
design these days may not be entirely in the unloaders. Greg Andrew of engineering consultants Worley Parsons in Vancouver BC, says over the past year or two larger companies have started looking at specially designed rail cars to reduce dumping times and reduce manual labour. Bottom dumping cars, which are normally less complex and cheaper overall than rotary dumpers, for example, have also been more prominent, particularly in Australia and New Zealand. One firm with a growing reputation Down Under for bottom dumping freight cars is Downer EDI Rail based in Granville, New South Wales. Downer EDI has developed a new generation of bottom dumping freight wagons for Australia’s important iron ore industry. Known as model AHOF, the wagons minimise dump time and reduce the risk of hang up. The structure was developed using 3D graphics and optimised using finite element analysis (FEA), while performance was fully assessed using vehicle dynamic simulation software. Door discharge test results were outstanding, the company says, with a total discharge cycle time considerably less than 20 seconds and with no product hang-up.On the coal side, Downer EDI has a range of stainless steel coal hopper wagons with a 98-tonne payload and a low tare weight of 22 tonnes. The high capacity, low weight wagons feature aerodynamic design and low maintenance automatic bottom dump doors. Downer EDI claims the wagons have been the most reliable operating in the Hunter Valley coal chain since 1953. Andrew says the bottom dumpers also would make it easier to deal with weather challenges such as freezing in the Canadian Rockies and are proving a lot less involved to dump.
Bigger and better
For Metso Minerals, David Hicken says there’s always a demand for bigger trains, higher throughput, and a larger range of rail rolling stock. “Development in control systems helps with this and the use of modern design tools like 3-D CAD and FEA help us to optimise designs.” Hicken adds that Chinese buyers are particularly fond of having “bigger and better” and Metso recently installed a quadruple dumper system at the growing Caofeidian Port in Northern China, which serves the Baohai Economic Circle including seven provinces and cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The new dumper unloads four rail wagons at a time. Hicken sees the Metso strength in the market relates to the integrity of the company’s rail wagon unloader design. “Our dumper systems are designed for long life and to last under arduous conditions,” he explains. “They are built to the highest quality anywhere in the world.” Nowhere is this more important than in Australia where he says clients demand the highest product integrity and have the most onerous design standards.