The operations of the stevedoring company span all of regional Queensland’s major port facilities, providing the full range of stevedoring and logistics solutions. The new crane is the third LHM crane for NSS, which has been operating an LHM 550 and an LHM 1300. 

“It’s taken a few months to get quay approval, but Liebherr never gave up, offering solutions to all the problems,” said General Manager Chris Ullett. “The quay has many restrictions, but between the port authority, Liebherr and ourselves, we finally made it work.”

The crane comes with double supporting pads and software to assist in meeting the quay limitations, along with Liebherr’s Cycoptronic anti-sway system and a twinlift spreader. The LHM 420 is also fitted to operate with the Rotabox system for dust-free high-value mineral handling.

“We’ve had a few sales on the West coast last year, as well as Darwin. It’s been a while since we have delivered a crane here in the East, so great to win this order,” Liebherr’s salesman, Gordon Clark said. “I think the support of Morrow in the area has helped us a lot in the last years.”

This brings Liebherr Maritime Cranes’ mobile harbour crane tally for Australia up to 10 in the last 18 months, with two for Fremantle, one for Bunbury, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Darwin, three for Henderson and now one for Townsville.

Littlehampton Harbour is a small but busy port catering for yachting, fishing and larger commercial traffic; its jurisdiction covers the mouth of the River Arun to the historic town of Arundel.

The MarNIS ‘Port Assessment Toolkit’ has been designed as a pragmatic marine risk management software package to help the professional mariner, Harbour Master and Port Safety Officer meet and exceed industry standards on risk management.  The MarNIS Toolkit provides risk assessment creation and review, accident/ incident logging, and Key Performance Indicator reporting. 

Billy Johnson, Littlehampton Harbour Master, commented: “The Littlehampton Harbour Board is committed to running a safe, efficient and welcoming harbour that caters for the needs of the local community, visitors and the environment.  As part of a process of continual review and improvement I am extremely pleased to be implementing the MarNIS ‘Port Assessment Toolkit’ with ABPmer.  We are a small team in Littlehampton and I look forward to the benefits of improved monitoring, decision making and being better able to link our risk assessment and operating procedures.”

Claire Brown, ABPmer Project Director, said: “We are delighted to be providing this Port Assessment Toolkit for Littlehampton Harbour.  ABPmer has undertaken many marine risk management studies for Port and Harbour Authorities.  Giving Littlehampton Harbour a version of the MarNIS Toolkit designed specifically for ports that operate in the leisure, fishing and short-sea shipping market offers a tailored approach to risk management.”

The MarNIS Toolkit prototype can be downloaded from the following website link: http://www.abpmer.net/MarNIS/.   A customisation service can be provided by ABPmer along with ongoing technical support, product upgrades and help desk facilities.

Jens Pfeiffer first joined Transas as a Sales Manager, Navigation in the company’s German office in 2005 where he worked for 2 years. Afterwards, he moved to a position of a Managing Director of the German subsidiary of a stock listed Norwegian Ship Supply Company, where Jens was later on promoted to a Vice President, Northern Europe before joining Transas again.

In his new role, Jens will lead an international sales, product management and after-sales team as they continue to deliver on Transas’ strategic growth objectives. 

Jens comments his new assignment: “After spending many years in another area of ship supply, I am very happy to join Transas again, a company with an extremely powerful product portfolio and especially with a great team to work with.”

The 120 tonne crane is to be mounted on a wheeled under-carriage and will have a 14 metre boom and 12 metre stick configuration. The slew ring will be 5 metres above the ground and the machine will be supplied with Mantsinen’s 5 metre pantograph extending cab.

An array of attachments will also be supplied to enable LPHC to load and discharge a wide range of products, including grain, fertiliser, biomass, RDF bales, coal and scrap metal.

The contract, which is expected to be completed mid 2014, marks a significant breakthrough for Cooper SH and David Cooper, Director of Cooper Handling Group, said he was delighted the company has been awarded its first Mantsinen supply contract.

“The concept of hydraulic material handlers still remains largely unexplored and only when the speed and accuracy of these machines can be seen can the advantages be truly recognised.”

The Mantsinen cranes range in capacity from 70 tonnes dead-weight through to 240 tonnes and are available on rails, tracks or wheels.

The machines are manufactured complete by Mantsinen and, whilst Mantsinen have supplied earlier models in the UK, this represents the very first totally manufactured machine – the earlier models being configured around a proprietary source upper frame.

David continued: “These material handlers are gaining a reputation for speed and productivity with discharge rates up to 1100 tonnes per hour – far quicker than rope-crane alternatives, and offer greater accuracy too.”

The Londonderry Port and Harbour Commissioners” contract was placed under the auspices of an EU public tender and George Cuthbert, Port Engineer, commented: “The Mantsinen crane from Cooper SH demonstrated a high specification product ideally suited to our existing and future activities in Foyle Port.

“The 120M crane will also offer the capacity and reach to access the larger vessels that visit the port,” he added.