Two of these cranes were destined for the APM Terminal facility at Hamptons Road, Virginia, USA, while the other two cranes and four RTGs were destined for a container terminal in Colombia. Bolted and welded to the deck of the vessel the 259-foot-tall cranes arrived fully assembled off Cape Henry in Virginia Beach in the early morning. It took the vessel about 4 hours to make its way into the Chesapeake Bay and down the Elizabeth River to the APM container terminal. Having arrived at the APM terminal it took two tugboats about  half an hour to pivot the vessel parallel to the pier, before gently nudging it into place. As the vessel was on schedule it would take about a week to get the cranes off and on to the terminal. This process involved undoing the welds and bolts, lowering the ship so that it was level with the pier, then rolling the cranes, which are mounted on rail wheels, onto tracks on the terminal. After the cranes are put in placed it takes around three weeks to test and put the final touches on the cranes and the schedule showed that the cranes would be operational in the first week of March. These two container cranes would further strengthen the port’s infrastructure, as ports along the East Coast are positioning themselves for an anticipated increase in Asian container traffic once the expanded Panama Canal opens in three years time. This would also bring the number of cranes to the Virginia Container Terminals to a total of 22 container cranes all capable of handling the largest vessels operating on the Atlantic routes, and the APM Terminal will have 8 of the cranes on their facility. While APM Terminals purchased the two container cranes, the Port Authority and its operations affiliate, Virginia International Terminals, will operate the state-of-the-art facility as it signed a 20-year lease last summer with APM Terminals. The price of the cranes has not been released but neighbouring Norfolk International Terminals took delivery of three ‘smaller’ cranes back in 2008 at a cost of USD8 million each.

Accident
Exactly a week after the delivery of the cranes to the APM facility the massive, orange-hulled Zhen Hua 24 started to gently pulling away from the quay carrying the remaining two other container cranes and four RTGs, when an accident happened. One of the two cranes still aboard the vessel clipped the boom of one of the two new APM cranes on the quay, thereby twisting it. “It caused extensive damage to the crane and minor damage to the wharf,” according to a statement from Joe Dorto, President and CEO of Virginia International Terminals Inc, which operates the Port Authority’s facilities. As a result of the accident, only one berth was left usable at APM due to safety hazards. One vessel has been moved from APM to Portsmouth Marine Terminal. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident. Closer inspection showed that the collision buckled one of the four sets of rail wheels on which the crane sits, with one of them almost snapped off. As a result the crane became unstable and with 20-knot wind there was a real cause for concern that the crane could tip over into the Elizabeth River. These new 259-foot-tall cranes feature a boom length of 489 feet from front to back, weighing each 1,650 tonnes and first priority for the crew was to stabilise the crane in order for container operations at two of the three berths at the facility to continue. “Most of the vessels due this week at APM can be reasonably accommodated with only two berths,” Dorto said in his statement. “The crane can be repaired.”

Arrest

On 25th February the vessel was detained by the US Marshals Service after the Norfolk Federal Court issued an arrest following a law suit filed by Virginia Port Authority and its operating affiliate Virginia International Terminals Inc. The suit in Norfolk’s Federal Court seeks USD14.65 million in damages. “From the time that it’s under arrest, it belongs to the United States Marshals Service – until the courts give us further instruction to either release the ship or to turn it over to somebody else as a third-party custodian,” said Andy Mazerik, a supervisory deputy for the Marshals Service. “We won’t release it unless the judge tells us to.” The damaged APM crane is “inoperable,” preventing cargo operations from taking place at one of APM’s berths, according to the lawsuit. “As best as can be determined, the damaged crane will have to be dismantled and removed in order to permit cargo operations to resume at the affected berth,” the suit states. “It is reasonably estimated that it may take up to a year before the berth may be cleared and cargo operations resumed.” The damages are estimated to be USD1.2 million a month and total damages to be at least USD14.65 million. “Plaintiffs have, or will be, caused to divert cargo to other port facilities at great cost and expense, including, without limitation, costs of shifting vessels and additional labour and drayage charges,” the suit states. The warrant for the arrest of the Zhen Hua 24 states that the vessel could be “condemned and sold to pay the demands of the plaintiff.”

In such cases, in which a financial judgment is eventually made against a ship and its owner and the judgment isn’t paid, its sets in motion a series of events that in the worst cases ends in court. If the owner (ZPMC) can’t pay the money, it is not unusual to sell the ship and/or its cargo, if people don’t have legal claims to it. But the vast majority of all cases are settled way before then, because usually – when you have to sell a ship and its cargo – everybody loses money, including the customer in Colombia – which still may take legal action against ZPMC for loss of revenue, but that is another case.

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.

< p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"> 

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.