This specialised equipment with its precision operation in tight and often covered stockyard spaces would probably be in strong demand, but for the global recession, the worldwide funk that had even stalwarts questioning if there’d be a bounce back any time soon. But, there are still believers out there and they have hopes of an imminent recovery in the world market in 2010, particularly as increasing environmental concerns demand covered domes for stockpile storage of some materials in sensitive areas, particularly near residential areas. Circular stacker-reclaimers are ideal to service such cone-shaped stockpiles made such as in the coal and sulphur industries. At Swedish-based Sandvik, one of the leading manufacturers of circular stacker-reclaimers in the world, they’re expecting rejuvenation in 2010 according to Thomas Jabs, Vice President Tech Centres Materials Handling.
Projects delayed
“Overall, the market situation in 2009 was rather on the quiet side,” says Jabs. “However, we have seen a lot of bigger projects delayed in 2009 which are now waiting for revitalisation in 2010.” There is optimism, as well in the United States. Any talk of layoffs, plant closures and other cutbacks that have hit manufacturers of other sectors of the bulk materials handling business seem foreign to BRUKS Rockwood Inc, the successful marriage of Swedish BRUKS and North American Rockwood Material Handling, which took place in January 2008. “We’re busy adding staff in Atlanta and in the Pacific Northwest as the request for circular stacker-reclaimer quotes is at an all-time high,” explains Desmond Smith, Vice President for the West Coast based in Seattle. “We did well in 2009 with sales over USD 30 million, making it the best year in company history.”
World’s largest
BRUKS Rockwood now claims to be the largest manufacturer of circular stacker-reclaimers in the world and is continuing to make inroads into the coal, biomass power, pulp and paper and similar industries. “We have been at the right place at the right time,” adds Smith. “Sure, we have competition, but we make a good product, it is marketed fairly, and properly supported.” Even the floundering pulp and paper industries throughout the world can’t curtail demand for too much longer for bulk handling machinery. BRUKS Rockwood manufactures its stacker-reclaimers at plants in Sweden and Germany and the German division suffered from the slump in the solid wood market, with plant output dipping to 60% of capacity in 2009. But, that was then and this is now, a now that seems to hold great promise as Smith lists contract successes of the past year. Some of the flurry of interest in getting quotes on new machinery can be blamed on US President Barack Obama and his advocacy of a move away from coal fired power stations to greater use of bio fuels – with a target of up to 20 to 30% of the electricity generation industry making the switch. There’s millions and millions of dollars available for plant conversion, which Smith says has caused a “feeding frenzy” among power companies keen to be able to charge consumers more for electricity if it is generated using bio fuels. BRUKS Rockwood has sold two circular stacker-reclaimers to a California power plant converting to bio fuels in Bakersfield. The equipment bought by the Mt Poso cogeneration company should be in operation in 2011. The circular stacker-reclaimers will be unique – they will be entirely fabricated in the US in plants in California, Georgia and Louisiana. Another large circular stacker-reclaimer was sold to Southern Co in Natchadosis, Texas with options on a second machine expected to be exercised any day. In South Carolina, the Ameresco biofuel plant has bought a BRUK Rockwood stacker-reclaimer and had the company also provide log lines, wood chipper and related equipment, plus three truck dump stations in a project worth up to USD 3 million.
Big things
“There are so many big things going on right now that the industry should pick up soon,” says an enthusiastic Smith, who is scrambling to keep up with requests for quotes from companies determined to get a slice of the federal conversion dollar pie. Meanwhile, Sandvik also managed to avoid plant closures and layoffs around the world thanks to a large order backlog that continued to be serviced into 2009. And, says Vice President Jabs, such closures or cutbacks aren’t anticipated in 2010 either, thanks to expected new orders in the 1st Quarter. Part of the reason for no staff cuts is that wherever logistically feasible, Sandvik manufactures its circular stacker-reclaimers and other bulk handling equipment as close to the customer as possible, particularly the larger steel structural parts. “There was no actual shift to low-cost countries, but of course, we also make use of fabrication in China, Korea and India to name a few,” says Jabs. “Nevertheless, we try to optimise the whole value chain and the mix between fabrication, transport and erection must be optimised.” In this evaluation by Sandvik, sometimes a higher cost country can still lead to overall lower prices due to shorter or smarter transport concepts getting to the erection site. In all cases, Sandvik treats each project separately and tries to keep its flexibility, adds Jabs.
Wait and see
For Metso Minerals, which has been centralising its bulk materials handling marketing and sales force around the world, much of 2009 was spent servicing orders from 2008. As 2009 progressed there were “lots of inquiries for quotes,” says Rich Schmitz, Vice President Products & Bulk Materials Handling in Pittsburg, PA. “There was a lot of preliminary planning followed by ‘wait and see’ leaving some of our quotes out there floating,” Schmitz adds. Metso largely services the coal, limestone, wood chip (paper) industries, with most of recent interest coming from the limestone sector. Rather than layoffs, Metso was short-staffed and hired eight people in January, says Schmitz. In Europe, Nick Smith, Metso’s UK Manager for Global Sales Support, says interest in circular stacker-reclaimers is starting to pick up following a “barren” last 18 months. “The volume of inquiries is starting to pick up, but it has not been a big market sector for us as most of our sales are in the United States.”
Conversions
Other major manufacturers of circular stacker-reclaimers, such as Schade, based in Herne, Germany, have found a lucrative market in the conversion of existing equipment, whether its their own brand or machines made by rival manufacturers. Since 2004, Schade has actively sought the conversion business, raising its profile in the important service sector of the bulk materials handling equipment markets. A typical project was the upgrade of circular storage in Taiwan from 200 to 400 tonnes per hour and the conversion of a double-rail cantilever scraper-reclaimer from mechanical to hydraulic tension station. Similar conversion work has followed in Australia, United Arabian Emirates and Brazil with a noticeable increase in third party work. And it doesn’t hurt, either, that even after decades of manufacturing such equipment, Schade still guarantees the availability of spare parts for every machine it ever produced. The modern circular stacker-reclaimer is a versatile machine, too. It can simultaneously stack and reclaim with each operation working independently from the other. All stacking and reclaiming steps are PLC controlled and can be fully automatic. Schade designed the first stacker-reclaimer for a covered stockpile back in 1988 for the coal industry, but has been in circular stacker-reclaimers for open stockpiles since the late 1960s when it began in the chemical industry. Sandvik designed and built stacker-reclaimers servicing circular stockpiles are usually housed inside a dome and the stockpile is built up at one end by means of a slewing and luffing stacker using a cone-shell stacking method for 360 degrees of rotation. Reclaiming is done at the other end by a radial scraper-type reclaimer, conveying it to a central hopper located under the central column. If needed, the rig can stack and reclaim simultaneously.