Perhaps it wouldn’t be overstating the case to say that 2009 was a bad year for cargo handling equipment manufacturers while 2010 was [much] better for order intake? Apparently, for VDL Containersystemen BV in the Netherlands, last year was a good year for business. “The first half of the year was very quiet and the order intake was low. But we used the quiet time to improve our spreaders, and to restructure our organisation,” said Pieter Verdonschot, Sales Manager – Spreaders for VDL Containersystemen. “We changed our production philosophy a little bit, we now work more under the ‘lean’ thoughts which makes us able to (among others) improve our delivery times.” According to Verdonschot, the second half of the year was more positive with a much better order intake. “We also found a new agent in Spain who immediately did good business for us,” says Verdonschot. “During the last quarter of 2010 we received many orders from all over the world. Now we are increasing our capacity for the production of our spreaders to be able to meet up with the needs of our customers.” Similar noises are coming from Bromma, Sweden which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. According to Vikram Raman, Vice-President – Commercial Management at Bromma, the recession has made some customers more cost-sensitive. Raman elaborated on this point by explaining that there were a couple of ‘issues’ affecting the market during 2010, including the fact that corporate cost-cutting resulted in some terminals having a greater need for after-sales (which worked well for Bromma due to fewer service points on all-electric spreaders and easier fault diagnostics on spreaders with SCS3). Also many operators considered the initial [high] purchase price of a spreader but didn’t consider a long-term view with lower lifecycle costs from reduced energy consumption and reduced maintenance cost a big advantage on for example the all-electric Bromma spreaders. He also added that there was an increase in ‘conversations’ on automated terminals and that there was an increase in activities in emerging markets such as India, West Africa and North Africa.
For 2010 – and in particular the last quarter, Bromma saw order intake up 50% compared to the same period in 2009. As a result, Bromma maintained its global market share of more than 50% in the spreader market and – according to Raman – continues to sell more crane spreaders than all its competitors combined. The company has also seen a steady performance in the spreader segment for Mobile Harbour Cranes (MHC) with nearly 50 MHC spreaders ordered during the last two quarters of 2010 (this segment includes replacement spreaders sold directly to terminals and orders from the two largest OEM suppliers).
Raman is confident the market will be picking up and is planning to expand their market share by increasing its sales force around the globe. “In the same way we are expanding our engineering we will naturally also add sales competence globally,” added Therese Westerudd, Marketing Manager at Bromma. “We will do this in response to increased market demand but also proactively in the regions we believe there will be a growth.” Another company that is doing well is Sweden-based SweFrame Port Equipment AB. Similar to its competitors it has identified the world’s hotspots for spreaders as India, Africa, South America and Asia.
The company was established during 2010 and received some important orders in its first year of operations. During 2010 it delivered its first unit – a Y40-E spreader – to Malta Freeport, while two units of I40-H were due to be delivered at the end of February 2011 to the Port of Tilbury, United Kingdom. The I40-H spreader is mainly designed for the ‘older’ cranes with less SWL and lower hoisting speed than the newer cranes have today. Therefore the spreader has a lower tare weight to increase the SWL for the operator.
New technology
As pointed out by Verdonschot his company took the ‘quiet time’ to improve their spreaders. Often this is the result of a customer query and has benefit for both parties. “We still see a lot of customers asking for custom-made spreaders,” said Verdonschot. “For example the spreaders delivered to crane manufacturer Cimolai Technology in Italy, were ‘Piggyback’ spreaders with corner flippers, gravity adjustment and rotation. These spreaders were ‘full options’ spreaders.” The VDL spreader has been totally renewed, and is a more modular spreader which can be produced quicker and weighs less than before. The company has also been successful in the United States. The New York Department of Sanitation (DSNY) is upgrading its North Shore Marine Transfer station to load garbage for transport by barge to a waste disposal site or intermodal terminal. Last September, VDL received an order for three spreaders for the containerised waste barge terminal. This contract has been won in partnership with USA-based Mi-Jack. In the first week of 2011, VDL received a new order for a second terminal – again for three spreaders. “This DSNY project is giving our cooperation a new impulse. With Mi-Jack we are very confident to score some more spreader orders this year,” said Verdonschot. These DSNY spreaders are also custom-made spreaders, and will be fully electric fixed 20ft spreaders with corner flippers and side-shift on it. Currently they are testing the electric flipper with some good results with regard to the capacities of the flippers. VDL supplied their first all-electric telescopic yard crane spreader in January to BCT in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. “We have done a lot of engineering for this project, the spreader is installed and has been working without any problems in the terminal in Den Bosch now for a couple of weeks,” said Verdonschot. The company has also opted to equip their spreaders with two 5.5kW electric motors drive (parallel running) and two separate hydraulic pumps. “The advantage of this construction is that if one drive system fails you can carry on with reduced speed, with the other drive-system,” explains Verdonschot. During a meeting earlier this year, Bromma also revealed some new developmen
ts that are in the pipeline. According to Lars Meurling, Vice-President – Marketing & Product Business Development, the company will launch the second generation of their GreenLine spreader family at the end of the second half of 2011. In the same period it will also expand their portfolio of safety products. Last year, the company launched its load sensing device on the spreader to identify overloaded containers. This device not only is a preventive measurement it also creates a safe working environment, lowers terminal insurance costs, and prevents property claims and associated damages. More over it reduces overload conditions and thereby extends equipment life by preventing accelerated stress on container handling equipment. Furthermore there are ongoing developments of the new SCS3 information initiatives geared both to local terminal staff and terminal network managers.
Bromma has also been looking at a broader environmental initiative by not ‘only’ looking at a ‘green’ spreader design but also in the production of the spreader. The spreaders manufactured by SweFrame are focused on providing high availability, high quality and easy maintenance. Among other features there is a fixed linkage, no brakes on the electrical transmissions and high lifting capacity [50t SWL]. Other design features [and to increase the availability of the spreader performance] is the unique twist-lock design, which does not need any kind of adjustment at all. The flipper gearboxes can handle 5000Nm of force while the hydraulic motor is located in a well-protected area. According to a spokesperson for SweFrame, the spreader design uses fewer bolts and nuts, and benefits from‘streamlined’ components in order to have less spare part stock between different spreaders. As a result this will also increase the mean moves between failures (MMBF). With a wide range of spreaders available, Sweframe will launch a hydraulic twin-lift spreader with separating twin application during the third quarter of 2011.
Orders
According to Verdonschot the company has received many orders from different inland terminals in Europe. “This has always been a big market for us, but now this market is definitively picking up again,” he said. “The inland terminals are mainly replacing their existing spreaders for new spreaders. There are also some new inland terminals being planned and developed at this moment in the Netherlands to improve multi-modality in the country.” Apart from the 6 all-electric spreaders for DSNY in New York, VDL received orders for new spreaders from inland terminals in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Bromma continues to ‘dominate’ the market for all-electric spreaders. Earlier this year, it reported to have received an order for a total of 40 GreenLine all-electric yard crane spreaders for the new Terminal Catalunya SA (TERCAT) facility in Barcelona, Spain. These spreaders will be placed on one-over-five automated stacking yard cranes (ASC) to be used at the Muelle Prat container terminal. Terminal Catalunya is part of the Hutchison Port Holdings group. The first group of Bromma all-electrics will be delivered to TERCAT during the summer of 2011. The company has also been awarded a major new contract for a total of 34 GreenLine YSX45E all-electric yard crane spreaders for the new Khalifa Port in development at Taweelah, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Again, these spreaders will be placed on the one-over-five automated stacking yard cranes (ASC) to be used at this terminal. “Abu Dhabi is a dynamic, growing port, and we are very pleased that Bromma is part of the Middle East port expansion story,” said Raman.
It might be noteworthy that specific design enhancements in the second generation all-electric yard spreaders include a new twist-lock gearbox [eliminating the brakes and sensor adjustments], additional space in the corner boxes and an improved end beam design, which provides easier access for maintenance staff, a non-adjustable twist-lock linkage design and optional electric flippers. In Colombia, Bromma won a new contract for 29 crane spreaders (5 quay crane spreaders and 24 all-electric RTG spreaders) for the expanding Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena operations in Colombia. The growing port of Cartagena is in the process of expanding its operational capacity to 4.5 million TEU. “Latin America is an important market – a growth market for Bromma – and we are delighted to be expanding our presence in Colombia with this new order,” said Raman. Another order came from Santos, Brazil for 13 twin-lift all-electric YTR40E spreaders. These spreaders will be equipped with the new load-sensing technology, first introduced to the market in June 2010. Bromma is also the sole supplier to the world’s first all-electric spreader terminal, which is starting operations in Itapoa, Brasil. Finally, the company was awarded a new contract by the Port of Shuaiba, Kuwait for 20 YSX40E yard single-lift all-electrics spreaders.