In the world of pneumatic shipunloaders – the usually low volume, energy smart and largely pollution free handlers of cement, coal, grain, wood pellets and other commodities – the cheap copycat machines have proven to be only reliable for about two years. Typically then, the frustrated customer is pounding on the door of an established maker of the vacuum-type pneumatics for something more dependable . . . and that’s the good news.
Take the experience of a leading manufacturer, Van Aalst Bulk Handling, of Holland, where Sales & Marketing Manager, Hans Van Est, reports of being frustrated by “almost every year a new competitor popping up” causing his company to lose markets in Bangladesh to pneumatic unloaders copied by China and India. “After these copies failed, we are now the preferred supplier over there again,” he says. “The clients are coming back to us.”
Long breath
The Dutch have a saying: “A good company has a long breath” and Van Est says that is proving to be true for Van Aalst. “In China the cheap copies are used only for low unloading capacity and small ships. “It is not pleasant when we lose an order to one of these new suppliers, but the quality of these units is so poor that the clients are finding buying cheap is turning out to be expensive.” Other major manufacturers of pneumatic shipunloaders are watching the progress of the machinery from China and India and feel it will be years before these new competitors can be seen as reliable in the market. At Neuero Industrietechnik in Germany, Managing Director, Tomas Kisslinger, agrees industry concern will grow about the new competition as the Chinese enter the low volume market. However, “experience is needed” and he says it will be some years before customers will give the copycat machinery any references.
Good year
As years go, the big five of the pneumatic shipunloader world say that 2012 was a relatively good one given the prevailing difficult and uncertain global market conditions. Europe continued to lag in an economic slowdown while the money rich Middle East, some Asian countries and Australia enjoyed an increase of purchasing power due to stable fiscal growth. While there has been a hint of recovery in the United States it apparently wasn’t enough to land a single pneumatic shipunloader sale for the major manufacturers . . . or at least none that they can detail. Imports of bulk commodities such as cement have yet to resume and may not be needed again until at least 2015, according to F L Smidth’s David Bergenstock, Sales Manager Pneumatic Transport Systems & Products, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There were no reported North American pneumatic shipunloader sales for the company in 2012 and none on the horizon in 2013 either.
For the Buhler Group AG of Switzerland, Martin Stoeckling, who as head of the Terminals Department is responsible for port projects, says economic recovery moved a step or two closer in 2012. “We saw an increase in offer volume and in the number of projects during 2012 in all regions,” says Stoeckling. “Other factors like the opening of the extended Panama Canal on the horizon or the change of global transport routes might have inspired customers to think about potential investments,” he adds.
Taking longer
Sadly, reaching the final purchasing decision to buy a pneumatic shipunloader is taking longer these days than in the past. “We had projects pop up at the beginning of 2012 that were still in offer/decision phase at the beginning of 2013,” says Stoeckling. “We have secured some mid- size and larger orders for unloaders and loaders, some of them in markets in Southeast Asia and the Americas.”
For Belgium’s Vigan SA, there’s a brighter outlook in 2013 “with significant sales in North Africa and the Middle East to be confirmed within coming weeks and delivery of large-size machines in South America forecasted for mid-year,” says Commercial Director, Alain de Visscher.
Vigan sees itself as more of a solutions provider for turnkey port developments rather than solely a ship loader/unloader manufacturer. As the company sells both pneumatic and mechanical shipunloaders, de Visscher can list a variety of “port solution” type contract successes from 2012 and into 2013. Among those that included a pneumatic continuous shipunloader was the French Port of Sete where a grain terminal expansion opened in August, 2012, included a 400 tonnes per hour capacity pneumatic unloader for barges and coastal vessels up to 5,000 deadweight tonnes.
For Vigan “all regions continue to be hot,” but projects are frequently long-term – sometimes several years – in coming to reality. For de Visscher there are strong prospects in Africa and Asia as growing populations hungry for grain will mean expanding imports that have to be unloaded in coming years.
At Cargotec Sweden Bulk Handling AB, where the Siwertell bulk handling equipment range is diverse, the company has opted not to concentrate on pneumatic shipunloader sales for the present. “If anyone is interested,” says Communications Manager, Emily Cueva, “we will of course find a solution as we do have the knowledge; however we do not market them (pneumatic shipunloaders) as such.” Meanwhile, Cargotec continues to notch recent sales successes in the large volume Siwertell shipunloaders for unloading coal at a Vietnamese steel plant for the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation and another in Denmark for coal and wood pellet unloading at a Dong Energy power plant.
Lower sales
In Germany, Neuero’s Kisslinger says economic recovery in Europe has been “irrigated” with money in some business areas but public investment remains slow. Neuero reports that in 2012 sales were lower than in 2011, but still at a “good level.” Kisslinger says the company’s investment in research & development is bringing results not only in new equipment but also in retrofitting older equipment from other manufacturers. Thanks to exports of grain from Russia and the Ukraine, Neuero is busy delivering loading equipment there and unloading machinery in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
One notable business success for the company involves Sodrugestvo in Kaliningrad, Russia, where Neuero has been involved in many years of continuous expansion, supplying 300 tph shipunloaders, and new shiploaders and unloaders at 600 tph capacities. Some buyers simply prefer to do it their way. At Richards Bay Terminal in South Africa last July a custom-built “giant” pneumatic shipunloader was offloaded for Transnet Port Terminals as part of a R33 billion equipment renewal project being phased over seven years. Built by Rio Tinto Alcan Alesa Engineering Ltd, of Switzerland, the pneumatic unloader is only the seventh of its kind in the world and can suck up alumina and pet coke at a blistering 1,000 tonnes an hour with a homogenous and dust-reduced material flow.
Innovation
And while markets may not be as vibrant as desirable for the big makers of pneumatic shipunloaders, some haven’t been sitting idle and innovation has come to the fore.
Turbo power has the team at Neuero excited and Kisslinger says the company’s new big machines are now also equipped with a special drive connecting in the same shaft with the impellers bringing “no mechanical transmission losses.” It also has monitoring systems in place for bearing and winding temperature along with bearing vibration. “Compared to traditional roots blowers there are energy savings of 20% depending on installation,” says Kisslinger. Neuro’s R&D team is continuously developing new components for its own machines and for retrofitting other makes such as:
· Own winch design
· Hardox conveying pipes made without cross welding
· Rotary airlocks, conventional and belt styles
No wonder Kisslinger contends that pneumatic shipunloaders with their vacuum suction are the most environmentally fr
iendly equipment in the bulk handling market. The machines lose out in only one area against the competitors such as mechanical or grab cranes and that is energy consumption because of factors such as higher belt speeds. But, these days, pneumatic shipunloaders are bridging the difference bit by bit thanks to innovations such as the new turbo power blowers with frequency inverters. “Offering the lowest noise and dust levels, added to safety advantages, pneumatic shipunloaders are the first choice for applicable products,” says Kisslinger.
Significant improvements
At Vigan, where machine advances are part of a policy of continuous improvement, de Visscher notes that over the past 10-15 years there have been significant advances made in reducing the energy consumption of pneumatic shipunloaders. “Globally speaking,” he says, “it is about 30% less energy per unloaded ton than 15 years ago.”
Vigan’s main targets for its innovators are:
· Reliability: engineering, design, choice of top quality materials and components
· Global performance: better unloading rates and average efficiency
· Costs: maintenance, labour, energy
· Environment: noise and dust levels
· Safety at all levels: by following the most strict international rules
Van Aalst hasn’t been sitting back in the innovation department, either, and the Dutch firm has built on “the existing advantages” of its hurricane aeration system and pinch valves (low maintenance costs) by introducing a new type of vacuum pump with even lower power consumption. The first pneumatic shipunloaders were manufactured at the end of the 19th Century. Today, thanks to continuous improvements over the decades they offer 5-10% higher average efficiency over mechanical unloaders under similar working conditions on the smaller-sized vessels. However, while this type of shipunloader appears to have held its own ever since in the bulk materials handling low volume segment of the market as a lower cost alternative, there are some dark clouds gathering on the horizon as larger ship sizes and capacities eat away at some of the benefits of this method of bulk unloading. Often, the bigger the vessel, the better the case for using mechanical shipunloaders. This remains a growing concern for the pneumatic shipunloader industry where makers are investing millions in R&D in an attempt to secure their future.