And it still may well be as the order books, or at least serious inquiries are growing for the vacuum-type pneumatic unloaders, which excel in meeting lower volume needs of the cement, dry powder, coal, grains and other industries. But, the growing Middle East protests and the precarious debt load of some European countries have tempered for some the rising optimism about the end of a recession, which ran unbridled from about November 2008 to June 2009, according to major pneumatic shipunloader manufacturer, Neuero Industrietechnik, of Germany. New developments, acquisitions, reopened order books and healthy inquiries have helped buoy spirits that have been seriously buffeted over the past two years. “We have some new developments and orders to cover this year,” says Tomas Kisslinger, Neuero’s Managing Director. “We have a new blower design which is increasing efficiency, reducing maintenance and increasing control,” he adds. “These new blowers will save 95% of grease costs, for example, and will be flanged directly to the motors.” For Neuero, Kissingler says 2010 was “a good year with interesting projects,” but he’s concerned that low interest rates and the high amount of money pumped into the market in recent years could see a reappearance later of recession type symptoms, but with even bigger problems.
New ‘bubble’
“At the moment there is a new ‘bubble’ being built and we hope that the governments do the right thing, reducing subvention, increasing interest rates, and letting any bank losses be assumed by the shareholders and not the taxpayers,” Kisslinger adds. “We believe there will come a time that business in this area will slow down.” For that reason, Neuero is not expanding. “With less business about we could work a little less and concentrate on new product developments,” says Kisslinger. After a “fairly good 2010,” another leading manufacturer of pneumatic shipunloaders, Vigan S.A., of Belgium, reported bulk handling equipment sales in Egypt, Greece, France, Vietnam, Pakistan, Ukraine, Nigeria, South Africa, Myanmar, Syria and Colombia.
Worldwide trends
Alaine de Visscher, Vigan’s Commercial Director, is not afraid to talk of current industry trends in a highly competitive market for pneumatic and mechanical shipunloaders. Among others, he lists worldwide trends as:
To optimise the energy consumption by incorporating more sophisticated components and technological improvements
To minimise pollution
To reduce all types of operational and maintenance costs
To increase the training of the human resource in charge of the equipment
For these reasons, de Visscher says Vigan has been making continuous small improvements to enhance its pneumatic shipunloaders and other equipment.
Record sales
There was no holding back the Buhler Group of Switzerland in 2010 and for the first time in its 150-year history, the group had over two billion Swiss francs in orders from all segments of the company. The shiploading and unloading sector had “another very successful year,” according to Reto Rechsteiner, Marketing Manager, for Buhler AG.“Projects are spread worldwide (the group has a presence in 140 countries), but with a clear hotspot for mechanical shipunloaders in Asia and pneumatic shipunloaders more in the near and Middle East,” says Rechsteiner. Much of Buhler’s optimism for the future stems from the September 2010 strategic acquisition of Schmidt-Seeger, another German company which operates around the world as a plant supplier in the field of grain management. “The bundling of the competencies of Buhler and Schmidt-Seeger will create a large pool of knowledge and experience, which will be utilised for developing innovative solutions for customers,” says Rechsteiner. “The product portfolio of Buhler and Schmidt-Seeger supplements each other along the food value chain from agricultural commodity collection terminals to processing.”
Contract successes
Neuero has had two major contract successes of late – the first an eight shipunloader deal in Saudi Arabia for Mansour in Jeddah. Four of these M600 units were rated at 600 tonnes per hour and four other M300s at 300tph, and Kisslinger says they have solved a congestion problem in the port with grain ships. And the German company is also helping upgrade older machines (not of their make) with new Neuero blowers and airlocks. In Libya, Neuero supplied three M600s to help cut wait and discharge times. In the past, Neuero has been asked by shipping companies to help them analyse and solve the challenge to speed up unloading at certain ports. And not to be outdone, Vigan had a major success in Pakistan with the delivery of a large mechanical shipunloader twin belt system capable of about 1,000 tonner per hour, coupled with a 600tph pneumatic unloader, as well as a complete conveying/storage and bagging system. And Vigan has already received various orders for delivery in 2011 in countries such as Bangladesh, South Korea, United Kingdom, Taiwan, France, Egypt and Iran. “Several other projects are ‘on the pipe’ but are still confidential and/or under negotiations,” says de Visscher.
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FL Smidth
Denmark based FL Smidth, which has divided its pneumatic shipunloaders into two segments – the Kovako line as the standard for lower volume needs, while Docksider is the line offering customisation and higher capacities – reports one recent sale to Shah Cement in Bangladesh of a Kovako model to unload fly ash. “There hasn’t been a huge amount of activity globally and there’s not going to be a lot of sales in 2011,” says David Bergenstock, Market Manager, Cement & Distribution Systems, for FL Smidth in Bethlehem, Philadelphia. “Typically shipunloader projects take several months to put together and are often part of a whole new terminal.” Market bright spots include India and Bangladesh where water transportation has growing appeal for shippers faced with increasing road and rail congestion, says Bergenstock. Other markets are also developing in West Africa. Bergenstock adds that with up to 16 cement terminals idle in the US because of a 40% drop in the demand for cement there isn’t a strong call for pneumatic shipunloaders. However, as cement plants work to meet new emission standards it’s possible they will need to import cement while terminals are upgraded or new terminals built and that could mean pneumatic shipunloaders would be needed. Barge unloading along the US river system also lends itself to pneumatic unloaders with their lower volume capacities usually between 350-400tph. The Kovako standard models are well proven in the industry and range from smaller road mobile units with a nominal capacity of 170tph for ships sizes around 5,000 deadweight tonnes to gantry mounted pneumatic unloader of 450tph servicing vessels around 40,000 dwt. The Docksider models can go from 600 to1,000tph, but Bergenstock says there hasn’t been a pneumatic shipunloader built in the high end range for many, many years.
Pneumatic vs. mechanical
Like many of the major shipunloader makers, Buhler makes both pneumatic and mechanical versions and has a clear role for each to meet differing markets and demands. Rechsteiner points out that pneumatic shipunloaders typically work best for lower yearly turnover volumes while the mechanical unloaders thrive in larger volume turnovers. Most of Buhler’s sales in large volume turnover (600tph and higher) with high throughput capacities are met by its mechanical shipunloader range, but the cost and availability of electrical power is a driver for machinery choice. One advantage of pneumatic shipunloaders is their ease of use at the quay when there is a high water level fluctuation and the adjustable nature of the suction pipe has an advantage over the fixed geometry of the mechanical shipunloader. “Fast and reliable unloading of the ship will remain a key factor,” says Rechsteiner. “Customers with a quick turnaround of ships will benefit from more attractive overall costs.” But, there’s more to it than that in selecting pneumatic or mechanical shipunloaders. Some Buhler models are still in service 30 years after commissioning, and Rechsteiner says energy consumption as well as maintenance or spare parts cost are also key issues. It also helps that Buhler is represented in 140 countries. “This closeness,” says Rechsteiner, “pays off in customer service contracts, but also in the very early involvement in new projects where our advice is highly appreciated in the industry.”
Tops for grain
In grain, Neuero’s Kisslinger says the pneumatic shipunloader is the best all-round machine for unloading and cleanup compared to mechanical unloaders, which he says are “weak” at cleanup. “It’s like having one car for the highway and then needing to change to another vehicle to drive in the city.” Kisslinger says Neuero’s M600 model (600tph) being lighter and with standardised components make the cost/benefit equation unbeatable. “Of course, other aspects like safety and environmental protection with sound and especially dust make the pneumatic the first choice.” He adds that maintenance costs are much less compared with mechanical unloaders. The substitution of chain and troughs or screw demand a lot of work compared with the conveying pipes of a pneumatic shipunloader. Kisslinger has a final word for the pneumatic vs. mechanical unloader debate, which has raged among manufacturers and buyers for years. “We try to explain,” he says, “with a famous sentence from the Chinese leader Deng Xia Ping, who said it doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black, what is important is that it catches the mice.”
Innovation
As well as its new, more efficient blower design, Neuero has a new range of direct drives that eliminates any connection between motor and blower, with the blowers now direct mounted on the motor shaft. “This reduces the number of the parts in the drive, increases efficiency, and reduces space, making the machine much simpler.” Meanwhile, at Vigan, it hasn’t been a time for dramatic innovations, says Alain de Visscher. As the company continues to invest in research and development and double its main factory area in 2010 with a boost in the R&D area. “We have no outstanding innovations, but continuous small improvements to improve what Vigan offers.” And there’s no further news yet as to whether North American pneumatic shipunloader and conveyor systems maker, Christianson Systems Inc., of Minnesota, has got closer to introducing its revolutionary new fan system to the market first announced several years ago. The project seems to be bogged down in the patenting process.