But the findings of the study were quite disappointing as it raised issues such as high investment costs, space issues, but more importantly the concept could only be used on rivers or ‘protected’ ports. As soon as the wind picks up the waves make the concept useless, as the barge becomes unstable (it starts to roll resulting in the swinging of the spreader which will make it very difficult for the driver to connect to the container. However, there are some supporters of the floating crane technology. According to Mario Terenzio, Technical Manager at Logmarin Advisors, Italy:
“Floating terminal facility technology has matured and there is a wealth of knowledge arising from many examples of floating terminals in operation all over the world, and the trend towards the utilisation of this alternative is still growing.” Terenzio illustrates this with examples, such as Indonesia, the home for the largest population of floating cranes. “As many as over 45 units are supporting the Indonesia coal supply chain and there are many other cases in coal, iron ore, copper and aggregates markets where commodities are moved solely thanks to the introduction of the floating terminals,” he continued. Other examples include deep-sea ports with inland waterway transport connections, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Constanza in Romania and Northern European hubs – the potential home for container floating trans-shipment terminals. “In those terminals the floating crane could be berthed on the seaside of the mother container vessel moored alongside the shore terminal, to enhance terminal productivity, to mitigate container terminal congestion, or to trans-ship containers from the mother vessel to the feeder vessels for coastal or river final destination. Other potential markets are represented by ports affected by restrictions on draught, lock dimensions, beam or LOA which prevent them receiving the modern fleet of container vessels. The floating crane concept can be deployed for mid-stream trans-shipment operations between larger container vessels and feeder ships,” says Terenzio. But he points out that due to the operational issues associated with the trans-shipment of the containers, such as the necessary accuracy of positioning the spreader above the containers and the container positioning itself, this kind of operation has to be carried out in relative sheltered area with maximum waves height up to one meter and winds of not more than about 50km/h. Nevertheless, the potential for a floating container crane terminal is growing and Logmarin, jointly with Liebherr, have designed a new floating crane, with buffer storage for containers handling (see last year’s article). Although project implementation has been put on hold for the time being, due to the global economic downturn and the deep crisis in the container sector, the intentions are there.
So a verdict for a safe and affordable floating container crane concept is still under discussion, and all is not lost. Floating crane manufacturers are busy promoting their cranes to the bulk industry and it seems that the global economic downturn might have not affected their business. “We have seen a very stable order situation since we started in the floating crane market with 2009 being very similar to 2008 even with the economic downturn,” said Enno Kramer, Managing Director at NKM Noell Special Cranes, the Netherlands. “On the floating lemniscates cranes we increased our market share that more or less compensates for what the market as a whole has been doing. The outlook for 2010 is at least as good as the previous years and might get better. At the moment we do see a definite worldwide increase of interest in our cranes as things are clearly picking up again.” Similar statements are coming from Genoa-based Logmarin. “Despite the 2009 global economic downturn, Logmarin’s business grew by 24% compared with the previous year. And the outlook for 2010 is so far very promising,” said Terenzio. “Two floating cranes designed by us are at the construction stage and a large floating terminal is at the final designing stage. These floating facilities will commence their services within 2010.”
Another floating crane manufacturer, Gottwald Port Technology from Germany has also been doing well in the bulk industry. Over the last 5 years, the company sold seventeen floating crane concepts and in 2009 received two orders from Associated Terminals (AT), operating on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, USA. At the end of September AT placed an order for a Generation 5, G HPK 6400 B floating crane – preceding a similar order placed in August 2009, which brings the total number of floating cranes ordered by AT to four and a total of ten Gottwald floating cranes working on the Mississippi River.
Order round-up
NKM Noell Cranes report that their latest order is a 40 tonnes floating Lemniscate crane that will operate in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. According to Kramer, floating Lemniscate cranes have a lot of definite advantages as the balancing with a separate moving ballast weight gives a lower centre of gravity and much better balancing of the jibs. This results in less pontoon movements, less power consumption and the possibility to use a narrower pontoon giving the crane a better reach. In addition, their cranes are equipped with flywheel technology providing storage of energy when lowering the load. This reduces not only fuel consumption but also the stored energy is used to partly power the crane while the diesel generator is ramping up when there is a sudden increase in power demand by the crane. This results in significantly reduced emissions. The company has also designed separate rooms for electrical and mechanical equipment – avoiding the need for operation personnel to go through either of them when accessing the crane.
Another point is driver ergonomics. One of the main developments is a specially designed suspension for the operators’ cabin, isolating it from any vibrations in the rest of the crane. The company have also installed an elevator for access to the operator cabin, a first on floating Lemniscate cranes. Furthermore they have eliminated most moving parts apart from hoisting, resulting in continued crane operations even if there is a breakdown of a single drive. The latest order from AT – the Generation 5, G HPK 6400 B floating crane, is a variant of Model 6 and derived from Gottwald mobile harbour crane technology. The crane is designed as a 4-rope grab crane for heavy-duty bulk handling with a grab capacity on the ropes of 50 tonnes up to a radius of 31m. It can be used alongside ships of all sizes and, depending on the terminal and operating conditions, is designed for handling rates of up to 1,000tph. Logmarin Advisors and sister company Interprogetti recognised the potential of floating terminal solutions as a viable alternative to shore-based infrastructure and set itself the objective of developing off-shore client-oriented solutions to overcome each client’s specific logistical bottleneck. At the end of 2008, the floating crane Princesse Abby – designed by Logmarin/Interprogetti – was inaugurated by PT Mitra Swire CTM (an Indonesian JV between PT Mitra Bahtera Segarasejati and Swire CTM Bulk Logistics). They gave Logmarin the opportunity to design a new floating crane concept by way of finding a balance between the operational requirements and cost, thereby giving the best value for money. The result was “motion damping” bilge keels, which were fitted on each side of about 3/4 length of the pontoon; structural anti-rolling fins were also fitted in way of the stern skegs, making the floating crane concept less sensitive to the adverse weather conditions as compared with the standard floating cranes. Logmarin worked closely with its partner Liebherr and incorporated specific features for open water and heavy duty conditions, four-rope grab configuration and the latest state-of-the-art Liebherr Canbus crane control system. The cargo gathering and crane cycle time is further enhanced by using a Peiner 24.3 cubic meter four-rope scissor lobster grab. During the last 12 months over 3.5 million tonnes of coal have been loaded by the single Liebherr crane fitted on the Princesse Abby. Its daily loading performance is steadily in excess of its guaranteed contractual loading rate of 18.000 tonnes (best daily average performance 27.63 tonnes). “There are not a lot of single floating cranes that can boost a throughput quantity like this, while working in open sea,” said Terenzio. “This basic floating crane design can be further enhanced to meet specific requirements of the client – for example it can be self-propelled, fit with sheltered area for steel products, containers, heavy lift, larger storage capacity, etc.”