“This is leading to a ‘normalisation’ of equipment discussions, with conversations restarting with various ports on expansion projects.” Benefiting from its existing grasp on the market, Bromma has also recorded a large number of orders for replacement spreaders. Most prominently, though, the manufacturer underlines the rising demand from developing markets and an increase in orders from customers in the US. Its major, recent all-electric yard spreader orders include: six all-electrics to Kalingrad, Russia; 11 all-electric YSX40E spreaders for Xiamen, China; six all-electrics to Konecranes for delivery to Turkey; and six all-electrics to Saigon, Vietnam. Furthermore, Bromma recently won smaller all-electric spreader orders for Bejaia Port, Algeria and Vladivostok, Russia. In terms of orders for ship-to-shore operations, Bromma was recently awarded new orders for a total of 34 separating twin-lift STS45 ship-to-shore spreaders for delivery to customers in Malaysia, the United States, Panama, and Turkey. Pieter Verdonschot, Sales Manager of spreaders at Dutch manufacturer VDL, reports that his company has noted an upturn in the market. “The market is picking up in our opinion. More and more customers are getting the budget available for making new plans and also for making investments,” he says. “We have recently received orders for multiple spreaders for both the US and the east side of Europe, which are relatively new markets for us. We’ve also seen some more movement in central Europe regarding inquiries and sales for new spreaders over the last couple of months.” Verdonschot adds that VDL has recorded strong demand from customers asking for custom-made spreaders, citing one good example as a recent delivery to Italian crane manufacturer Cimolai Technology. Offering versatile operations, these ‘Piggyback’ spreaders for the Rete Ferroviaria Italiana terminal featured cornerflippers, gravity adjustment and rotation. Among other notable recent orders, VDL lists: three CH6320 all-electric spreaders for the Department of Sanitation of New York (DSNY); one CH6400 for an inland port in the US; one overhead frames (OHFs) for CTS Container Terminal in Köln, Germany; one CH6400 all-electric spreader for Bosche Container Terminal (BCT) in Den Bosch, Holland; three CH6020s for a port in Georgia; one ECH 2400 for Progeco in Rotterdam; and one CH6400RTGA for GHSA in Spain. While Sweden’s Timars stumbled somewhat at the outset of 2010 in terms of orders, Product Manager Joakim Carlsson reports that the company has noted a pleasing upturn as the year has progressed. “The first three months of 2010 were a bit disappointing, as we saw tendencies of a better market at the end of 2009. The only market that really lived up to our expectations was the Russian market, with several deliveries of Timars C-lift spreaders and Timars Gravity Centrelizers,” he explains. “The market really picked up in April and we did experience a very busy summer with many orders, and since then we have continued to gain orders from both new and previous customers.” Among the company’s orders in 2010, Timars’ Russian distributor, Roxor Industries, gained orders for nine units of its C-lift model, four units of the Timars Gravity Centrelizer and one unit of the Timars OHA, with a fully automatic overheight frame. When speaking to WPD, the company stated that it will probably have added at least five spreader orders from the Russian market to this list before the end of the year. The company also recorded orders for C-lift spreaders and the Gravity Centrelizer from Kokkola Port in Finland (Polar versions), Izmir Port in Turkey and Carbones Del Cerrejon in Colombia. At the time of going to press, the most recent order on Timars C-lift was for six units to Gortan Yachting in Croatia. Timars sold a record number of Gravity Centrelizer units in 2010, 10 years after it was introduced to the market. The company also delivered Gravity Centrelizer orders to Jacinto International in Texas and SMART in Mayotte. In terms of its OHFs, Timars is still drawing interest from an international base of customers, including orders in 2010 from customers in St Petersburg in Russia, Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, Norrkoping in Sweden and Noumea in New Caledonia. The company’s new distribution partner in UK, Seward Wyon, has also scored several projects on OHFs for Timars over the year. The Timars C-lift is a semi-automatic fixed container spreader with a very low weight. Timars states that it has “several unique advantages” that optimise efficiency and ease of operation. Timars’ Gravity Centrelizer is a “unique lifting device” that complements the container spreader for efficient and safe handling of unevenly loaded containers. Owned by a Consortium of private industrialists, selected from several heavy industries in Sweden, newly formed independent company SweFrame Port Equipment AB recently picked up a contract from the Port of Tilbury, UK, for two I-40 model light-weight ship-to-shore single-lift spreaders. The port placed this order to replace two light-weight spreaders in existing cranes. The I-40 is designed to handle containers sized from 20 to 40 feet with ISO twistlocks. The I40-H is an electric hydraulic spreader, with the principle facets including high availability, simplicity and maintenance-friendly solutions. It combines SweFrame’s lighter platform with the components and hydraulics of the heavier spreader platform to achieve a dedicated spreader for ship-to-shore applications where tare weight is of concern. Independent of any other equipment manufacturer and other parties within the business, SweFrame specialises in container handling, focused on spreaders. The company professes to have “engaged some of the most experienced spreader professionals in the world to create a high quality spreader for the demanding container handling environment”. SweFrame adds that it places serious onus on meeting high ISO standards and its commitment to quality, using the best grades of steel, always from original European suppliers. “The objective of SweFrame is to produce a spreader that maximises the operators’ availability while keeping it as simple as possible for maintenance,” says SweFrame Sales Manager, Mikael Pettersson.
Electric stock
Bromma attributes much of the appeal of its all-electric spreaders to the financial advantages they offer customers in a still challenging financial climate. Among these perks, the manufacturer lists a lower spreader weight, resulting in reduced power consumption and a lifetime diesel cost saving of EURO 30,000. Unsurprisingly, the other beneficial cost-saving and performance facets of these spreaders relate entirely to reduced energy consumption, reduced maintenance costs, and an optimised product lifetime in comparison to their hydraulic counterparts, starting with a reduction in power consumption of as much as 90%. Additionally, they offer a major reduction in service points – the company states that one customer reported savings of more than 60% in terms of annual labour and material costs when compared with the hydraulic spreaders in their fleet. Finally, to complement lower consumable costs such as no oil or filters, the company hails the “tremendous cumulative lifecycle cost benefits” offered by all-electric spreaders. Bromma states that through its ecological, trademark Greenline spreader, it can offer a saving of up to half of the original spreader cost. The leading spreader in Bromma’s ship-to-shore canon is the STS45, which it boasts is the industry’s best-selling STS spreader. It attributes this success to STS45’s versatile, “proven, reliable, and highly productive” separating twin-lift solution, capable of single and twin-lift (20-foot containers) operations. “Growing terminals need durable and flexible equipment that can seamlessly handle the variety of box sizes – 20-foot, 40-foot, and 45-foot – often found on container ships,” states the manufacturer. “The flexible and reliable performance characteristics of the STS45 leads to faster ship turns, due to higher rates of boxes moved per hour, and the
greater revenue potential.” The company adds that the STS45 is lighter than most comparable STS separating twin spreaders, weighing 12.7 tonnes in comparison to rivals that can weigh as much as 14.2 tonnes – delivering reduced CO2 emissions, operating costs and power consumption. In terms of the aforementioned versatility, the STS45 offers “options for almost every terminal preference,” including height indication; LED lamps; side flippers; a Twin Twenty Detection System to detect gap risks; SCS3 advanced spreader diagnostics technology; and noise reduction technology.The company has introduced a new, second generation all-electric spreader, the first of which will be placed into service in the Port of Lyttelton on the south island of New Zealand. The new, second generation Greenline spreader headed to Port Lyttelton has many new design enhancements designed to improve spreader performance. In addition to reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions, these include:
second generation spreaders featuring a new twistlock gearbox, with brakes and sensor adjustments eliminated
a telescopic gearbox further enhanced for even greater reliability
fixed twistlock linkage, eliminating the need for maintenance technicians to perform adjustments, and improving uptime
removed adjustment points to minimise the risk of broken linkages
additional space in the corner boxes and an improved end beam design, which provides easier access for maintenance staff
easier access, meaning faster and simpler spreader maintenance, which boosts uptime.
Stepping up
Addressing its latest technological spreader innovations, VDL highlights that it will see out 2010 having supplied its first all-electric telescopic yard crane spreader to BCT in Den Bosch. “We have done a lot of engineering for this project and are now ready for the delivery of this spreader,” states Verdonschot. “This is a very important step, because now we will have a good reference for our electric telescopic spreader which is also very close to our factory.” He adds: “For a project in the waste department of the city of New York we will supply three fixed 20-foot spreaders with fully electric flippers. We are now testing our electric flippers design in our factory to make sure the flippers work perfectly when this project has to be delivered.” One of Timars main, recent developments has been the fifth edition of Timars’ OHA, fully automatic over-height frame, which was released at the end of 2009. This new version included over 20 improvements that made the OHF “stronger, easier to maintain and even more efficient.” Says Carlsson: “We are very satisfied with the result of this new version, and so are the customers that have operated it.” During the summer, Timars also delivered a special version of its HCL spreader to Buffers USA. The HCL is a robust, semi-automatic fixed spreader, and for this order Timars manufactured and delivered three 40-foot units with a low total lifting height. The lifting height was halved compared to standard spreaders, facilitating the operator to store more containers. The company also recently launched a new, low-cost fixed semi-automatic container spreader that it states is “as simple as it gets, without neglecting the true Timars quality.” Timars states that this spreader offers a reliable spreader at a very good price. The new spreader can also be assembled in the port, which decreases the freight cost to many customers by up to 80%. Bromma states that worker safety has been one of its priorities for decades, and an important factor in its recent technological spreader developments. Most recently, the company introduced a new load-sensing system in spreaders, believing that there is a compelling case for the safety-related benefits of such technology, given the risks associated with container eccentricity and overload conditions.
“Bromma’s new load-sensing system, engineered by Swedish and German engineers, provides the information needed to perform a safer lift, and nothing is more important operationally than safety,” the company states.The system features a load sensor in each of the twistlocks, displaying the full twistlock system. Bromma load cell technology is based on strain gauges, which are an integral part of the load cell mounted in the twist lock assembly. These strain gauges are individually calibrated at the factory and temperature-compensated to increase the accuracy of their load measurement. Among many benefits that the company lists, Bromma states that the system provides a warning for when containers are lifted with one or more twistlocks stuck in the container stack or in trailer chassis. It also provides a warning system for snag loads in ship cells, or for when all twistlocks are not actually locked into the corner castings. Measuring containers during the normal load cycle, under normal conditions the system causes no interference with the terminal operation. The company states of the safety enhancements available to customers: “The cost to a terminal from overloaded containers is considerable. Continued overload lifts produces accumulated stress on lifting equipment, which can impact spreader lifetime, and require an accelerated spreader replacement cycle. Accidents resulting from overload conditions can lead to property damage and/or staff injury. Accidents result in direct property cost loss, as well as higher insurance costs. The ‘costs’ of injury are both financial and reputational – accidents damage labour relations and morale, impair performance, and are financially damaging. The bottom line in terms of return on investment is this: increase worker safety, reduce commercial risk.”
Additionally, Bromma has introduced a new OSR45 automatic 20-45-foot OHF. The company states that the two main advantages of this product are its high flexibility and, staying true to the aforementioned remit, the greater safety due to automatic operation. The OSR45 can flexibly adapt to various Bromma spreaders, with safer and faster handling of flats, ISO containers, or overheight containers. As the spreader telescopes, the overheight frame telescopes simultaneously, allowing the unit to handle 20-foot, 30-foot, 40-foot and 45-foot containers with overheight cargo. The OSR45 OHF is only mechanically operated and requires no power supply or hydraulics, either for attaching or operation. The twistlock is based on the Bromma floating twistlock.
On the boom
The development of spreader technology is integral to global commerce and the transportation of goods. The demand for spreaders is unrelenting, even in periods of economic instability. Delivering safe and efficient technological solutions to customers’ needs is of paramount concern to manufacturers, who undoubtedly have an impressive mandate to satisfy in a market that rather aptly continues to boom.