With containerisation in continued ascendancy, the reachstackers market remains a source of strong order levels despite the world’s wider economic struggles. This naturally encourages a strong competitive spirit amongst the companies that build these machines, in turn promoting product innovations.

Konecranes believes that the growth in container volumes that many port consultants are predicting will underpin a continuous, annual rise in reachstackers sales of 5–7% over the next 10 years.  The company adds that it wouldn’t be surprised if the market sees further consolidations of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

 A river runs through it

One of reachstackers’ main benefits is of course their versatility and capability to perform within the often-limited spaces available in container terminals. This, and the ability to reach over the quayside, is why they are particularly suited to barge handling and inland river terminals. The companies to which World Port Development  spoke for this article cited two Parisian examples to illustrate this point.

Firstly, Manitex-owned Italian manufacturer CVS Ferrari notes a deal with Paris river port Nogent-sur-Marne among its recent deliveries. Ecology was an important concern in this order, with the Ferrari F481 machine featuring a Euromot stage IIIB engine and complying with strict environmental regulations. One area in which CVS claims it excels is offering the shortest turning radius in the reachstacker market. This, the manufacturer states, is vital for achieving the maneuverability that is often required within the tight logistical constraints of terminals where space is limited. Environmental concerns were also prevalent in Cargotec’s October delivery of two Kalmar DRF450-70S5XS reachstackers to operate along the city’s river Seine. The company has worked to minimise the noise pollution of these machines, which are operating in an area of 20×20 meters. They are also painted dark grey to ensure they blend into the banks of the Seine in the background.

Logical Ecology

Environmentally friendly design does of course not relate merely to a machine’s logistical surroundings. In contemporary cargo-handling operations, it’s also a driving factor behind reducing costs and improving efficiency. This is certainly the case for Konecranes, which in January announced the launch of the SMV 4531 TB5 HLT, a model that it describes as “the world’s first hybrid reachstacker for container handling”.  The new addition to the company’s RS portfolio has a lifting capacity of 45 tons and features a hybrid diesel/electric driveline, an electrified hydraulic lifting system, and super capacitor-based energy storage. Its propulsion and lifting are powered by dedicated electric motors that can all operate in regenerative mode. Energy that the machines generate during braking and load lowering is recovered and stored for later re-use.

The company has been field-testing the SMV 4531 at the Port of Helsingborg’s container terminal, and states that it can cut fuel consumption and emissions while also offering improved performance in terms of acceleration and lifting response to driver commands. This, the manufacturer boasts, provides customers with substantial cost savings and environmental benefits. The model’s estimated fuel consumption is around 10 litres per hour during normal handling of fully loaded containers, which the company states is “significantly less than with conventional reachstackers.” This, Konecranes details, is achieved by electrifying all flows of energy across the driveline, the hydraulic lifting system and the energy storage system.  “Potentially, the diesel engine of the hybrid reachstacker could be replaced by another source of electrical energy, as technology and price allow,” adds Anders Nilsson, Technical Director, Konecranes Lifttrucks. “Such examples may be fuel cells or an energy storage that can be recharged via a connection to the power grid.” CVS currently supplies its reachstackers with two makes of engine: Cummins and Scania. The company states that it chose these brands because they showed good reliability and lower fuel consumptions when coupled with CVS’s hydraulic system. The manufacturer is now on its third generation of hydraulic system, which is designed with variable displacement pumps with a load sensing distributor and flow sharing of the latest generation by Bosch Rexroth. The company boasts that, in addition to reduced fuel consumption, this system increases machine performances and maintains the right oil temperature, enhancing the life cycle of all components and saving on maintenance costs.

Avoiding collisions

In December, insurer TT Club, the Port Eq
uipment Manufacturers Association (PEMA) and the International Cargo Handling Co-ordination Association (ICHCA) published figures based on claims analysis data that suggested USD30 million in insurance claims could have been saved over the last six years if anti-collision devices were installed on lift trucks. Additionally, they reported that anti-collision technology could have prevented 51 workers from being killed or seriously injured during this period. With this being the case, WPD asked manufacturers what they make of these figures.

“Without having seen the report, this high number does not surprise us,” says Konecranes’ Lundbäck, who highlights his company’s award-winning NearGuard system, which alerts drivers to obstacles and/or human beings, as an effective way to avoid accidents. “Collisions not only cause injuries and fatalities, [but] also poor or non-existent maintenance of machines might sometimes be a reason for such accidents. My personal belief is that the industry would benefit from a mandatory annual inspection similar to what the industrial crane industry has already implemented [for] years.” He adds that safety is Konecranes’ top priority and that its inspection program, MainMan, helps to enhance this on the terminal by consistently monitoring machines’ maintenance. The software identifies safety deficiencies at an early stage, summarising this information in a report that can be emailed directly from a handheld device. Freightquip, Australia’s exclusive licensed distributor of CVS Ferrari machines in the country adds that it too believes that the USD30 million figure is a “definite possibility”, and stresses that CVS is making great inroads in this area. The manufacturer is exploring a number of anti-collision devices as part of its product innovation, and now fits reverse cameras to its reachstackers that have “exponentially improved” visibility during RS operations.

Selling up

CVS highlights an antipodean order handled by Freightquip as being particularly notable among its recent business. This RS delivery went to Toll Shipping Australia’s McGraw Wharf operations in Tasmania. The order was for four CVS Ferrari F478 reachstackers – a second generation of reachstackers to be supplied to Toll as part a long and existing relationship. Such orders are part of what CVS calls a “positive trend” in reachstacker contracts over the past year. It adds that Freightquip’s high quality after sales service offers significant benefits for customers, with the distributor having invested considerably in a stock of genuine CVS Ferrari spare parts to immediately respond to Australian customers’ requests. But CVS’s homeland has also proved important in its recent reachstacker activity and building up a “quite consistent” order backlog for 2013, with Italian customers “renewing their trust” in the company. In particular, it highlights two big orders: four RS units to La Spezia Container Terminal and three RS units to SECH, Genova.  In 2012, CVS also notched its first sale to a customer in North America by delivering two F478 reachstackers to the Canadian military. Panama and Angola were two other countries to which CVS made its first deliveries over the past year.  In January, Hyster announced that Katoen Natie had purchased nine of its reachstackers along with one 25- and one 32-tonne forklift truck. This concluded what the manufacturer described as a “challenging” tender process. These RS units are operating at Katoen Natie’s headquarters in Antwerp, Belgium, with the company reporting a 6-litre per hour saving per truck after the first months of operation. Hyster states that this could result in savings of up to 90,000 litres over a 5–6 year period. Katoen Natie states that it opted for the Hyster machines due to the benefits they offer in terms of total cost of ownership, with fuel consumption a particularly important concern. A large unit from Hyster’s 8–16-tonne capacity reachstacker range was among the machines at its outdoor stand at the March IMHX event in Birmingham, the UK, at which the company demonstrated the role of handling equipment in transferring goods from ship to shore to store and the shop floor.

Among Konecranes’ recent reachstacker orders is a contract to supply a US customer with two RS units in rail operation with 45 tonnes in the first row and 43 tonnes capacity in the second row. Another American customer has ordered a reachstacker for steel coils, equipped with a lifting hook with a capacity of 60 tonnes. Other notable Konecranes RS orders include deliveries of new capacity reachstackers to the Faroe Islands and Sweden. These machines have a 45-tonne capacity in the first row, 37 tonnes in the second row, and can stack up to six containers high. In December, Terex Port Solutions announced that it had delivered the 400th unit of its best-selling TFC 45 h reachstacker. The client in this instance was Brazilian logistics firm Gelog, which bought the machine via the Santos-based distribution company Equiport. Gelog is using the machine at its containerised port logistics handling facility in Santos Port, São Paulo. Terex states that rugged reliability and efficiency are among the TFC 45 h’s benefits. The machine offers maximum lifting capacities up to 45 tonnes in the first row (50 US tons), 27 tonnes in the second row (30 US tons) and 13 tonnes in the third row (14 US tons) for full, bulk and high-cube containers up to 5-high on the first row. The hydraulic TFC 45 h is available in standard spreader and special attachment versions tailored to a wide range of applications.

Cargotec, the parent company of Finnish reachstacker manufacturer Kalmar, has notched a number of notable RS orders of late. These include a large contract with Venezuela’s government-owned port operator Bolivariana de Puertos (Bolipuertos), SA to supply a range of port equipment. Bolipuertos is a long-time Kalmar customer, and this is one of the largest single deals the manufacturer has sealed with the operator. Deliveries will start in May 2013, with Bolipuertos’ Puerto Cabello and La Guaira locations receiving:

30 Kalmar reachstackers

4 empty container handlers

8 heavy forklifts

9 light forklifts

7 heavy terminal tractors

41 medium terminal tractors

1 zero emission rubber-tyred gantry crane

South America has been an important source of reachstacker business for Kalmar in the past year. The manufacturer’s latest order in the region came from the Port Of Buenos Aires in Argentina. This was to supply four reachstackers: two Kalmar DRF420-60S5 machines for Terminal Ferroviaria Argentina S.A. (TEFASA), with a further two DRF450-65S5 models sold to another key terminal at the port of Buenos Aires.

Big Data

At the end of January, Konecranes announced the launch of Truconnect. This online system allows operators to monitor both efficiency and productivity. Truconnect involves the installation of conditioning monitoring units on the truck that collect operating data and transmit it wirelessly to the Konecranes Remote Data Center. Here the data is analysed and compiled in online views and reports, accessible 24/7 through a password-protected Customer Portal.

Konecranes states that the data that Truconnect collects and reports offers operators significant opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity and safety. Specifically, it allows them to monitor:

Total fuel consumption and the average fuel consumption when a truck is running laden, empty or idling

The average fuel consumption per load

A truck’s average speed

Load spectrum

Travelling distance

Göran Pehrsson, Service Manager, Konecranes Lift Trucks, says: “The usage information helps the truck owner to improve maintenance operations by scheduling maintenance according to actual usage. The truck owner gets information that helps him to allocate maintenance resources with confidence.”

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

So what else does the future hold for reachstacker innovations? Freightquip states it sees the functions for drivers as being at the heart of reachstacker developments. These, the company details, will include vertical lift, spreader tilting, spread anti-collision, reverse cameras and the fitting of cameras to the spreader. It adds that it believes liquid natural gas (LNG ) will be a “strong possibility” as a fuel alternative in the near future, along with regenerative devices to reduce fuel usage. Konecranes also believes there is plenty of scope for further research and development in the reachstacker market. The manufacturer states that safety will be of particular importance in this respect, as will lowering fuel consumption and emissions. Additionally, it states that it has seen a drive towards higher payload and also the use of reachstackers for example in the steel and oil industry. With the continuing strength of the market and reachstackers’ ongoing ubiquity in terminal operations around the world, there is good reason for manufacturers to invest in RS enhancements. The current trend in global economics continues to be bleak, but reachstackers, it se
ems, have little respect for this fashion.