Italy: regional report November 2013

Since the beginning of the last century Italian company Bedeschi has been involved in handling various kinds of dry bulk material for a variety of industries like cement, brick, clinker, coal, bauxite, iron ore, coal etc. The company business segments are essentially:

Bricks: the entire range of equipment required for bricks and tile manufacturing

Cargo Handling: all kinds of stackers, reclaimers and conveyor systems

Mining: crushers and apron feeders

Marine: cargo handling systems required for on board pasting installation on transshippers

Since 2004, the company has recognized the vast potential of the growing offshore transshipment market and started developing cargo handling systems for offshore applications, too. Bedeschi has the distinction of implementing various transshipment systems in different parts of the world which are in successful operation. Two systems are examined below as case studies:

THE ‘PRINCESSE CHLOE’ AND ITS SISTER VESSEL ‘VITTORIA’

The Princesse Chloe and its sister vessel Vittoria are equipped with two heavy duty Liebherr offshore cranes of four rope type with 30 tonnes capacity each. The cranes are strategically placed in such a way, with respect to the hoppers, so as to minimize the slewing movement, thereby increasing the cycle time and efficiency.

Each Floating Transfer System (FTS) is equipped with a cargo handling system supplied by Bedeschi, which consists of two hoppers and an array of conveyor systems leading to a telescopic/shuttle ship loader. The hoppers are of 50m3 volume with a top opening sufficient to accommodate the footprint of the large grabs in use. Coal from each of the hoppers is extracted by means of individual variable speed belt feeders and transferred to the longitudinal conveyor. Another conveyor then transports the coal and leads to the shiploader which is of shuttle/telescopic boom type and has 19m air draught, which makes them capable of loading large vessels up to Capesize. It is fitted with a curved delivery chute, which can deliver coal into all parts of the holds of a Capesize vessel, evenly without any broken space. The cargo handling equipment constructed and supplied by Bedeschi is manufactured with the highest classification for heavy duty work for open sea conditions.

Another recent completion of a project by Bedeschi is the engineering, supply and installation of a new shiploader for loading coal for a rechristened floating transfer station Bulk Celebes. The new retractable shiploader, similar to the ones already operating in Indonesia, is equipped with a curved delivery chute supplied by Bedeschi and the floating transfer station was retrofitted in Singapore for coal loading operations in Indonesia.

‘ORE SOSSEGO’

Bedeschi has also recently completed the implementation of another large floating terminal for Vale, named Ore Sossego. This FTS which is now commissioned is being used to transfer iron ore from Valemaxes into Capesize vessels or OBOs. The Ore Sossego is equipped with five MPG cranes, of Liebherr make, and 

a cargo handling system comprising five hoppers, of 50m3 capacity each, equipped with variable belt drives feeders, conveyors and two shiploaders. The basic layout is such that one section of longitudinal conveyor is fed by three cranes and the other by two cranes, both moving in opposite direction and transferring the iron ore to a transverse conveyor. The transverse conveyor has a capacity of 6,000tph (tonnes per hour) and transports the cargo across the beam of the transshipper leading to a deviator, which distributes the cargo to either of the shiploaders. These retractable shiploaders of 3,000tph capacity each, have an outreach of 44m with slewing and luffing capability.

Bedeschi is also a member of Bulk Logistics Landmark (BLL) which is a consortium of Bedeschi, Liebherr and Logmarin. Bulk Logistic Landmark is a single-source supplier, providing state of the art expertise and technology for green dry bulk handling, storage, transshipment and waterway transport. BLL is founded

on the synergies, the individual strengths and the networks of each of the three partners offering its clients a wider range of integrated services and products, as well as sparing them the trouble of interacting with many organizations. BLL helps its clients to optimize the flow of dry-bulk materials through cost effective solutions (shore terminal, storage facilities, floating terminals, self-discharging vessels, floating cranes, etc.).

Italian company CFS International Engineering Handling srl develops, designs and manufactures bulk handling equipment.

CFS’s products are used by sectors such as: ports, steel mills, waste, cement, demolition, waste and every type of material handling. The company’s production includes both mechanical, hydraulic and electro hydraulic buckets and also hydraulic and electro hydraulic grabs.

CFS Handling is able to offer a wide range of products to suit the customer’s specific needs. Customers, both Italian and foreign, have proved the effectiveness and validity of CFS’s products in the field.

Recently CFS manufactured a 16m3 electro hydraulic bucket for wooden chips with a density of 0.7t/m3, which will be installed in the Port of Livorno in Italy. This is the third machine that CFS will deliver to Livorno.

For the scrap sector CFS manufactured and shipped 0.5m³/ 0.6m3/0.8m³/1m³/1.5m³ hydraulic grabs (HGV model) and also 5m³/10m³ electro hydraulic grabs (EGV model) for the ports and steel mills of Italy.

In the paper industry, CFS has constructed an electro hydraulic bucket EBL with nominal capacity of 3.5m³ for handling of plastic material resulting from the separation from paper.

This summer CFS manufactured and shipped two 18m³ mechanical buckets for coal handling in India. Another 12m3 electro hydraulic bucket EBV for materials with density of 2.5–3t/m³, like iron nickel balls, also designed and manufactured for an Italian port and installed on a Gottwald crane.

A 4m3 EBL electro bucket was also delivered in France. The bucket is equipped with sensors in order to operate

automatically on an overhead crane. The handled material is grape marc. The bucket has special valves made of stainless steel AISI 316 to handle foodstuffs, and it was painted especially for a food environment.

Still under construction is another 18m³ electro hydraulic bucket for materials with density of 1.8t/m³, that will be installed on a Gottwald crane.

Logmarin Advisors, part of RINA Group (2,200 employees, 140 offices in 49 countries and €300 million turnover) specializes in waterborne supply chain assessment and design and is a leader in floating terminal design, with long-standing professional experience and overall expertise in:

• floating terminals;
• open sea terminals & transshipments;
• self-unloading barges and ships;
• special purpose floating units;
• port facilities and terminals;
• bulk handling equipment and systems; and
• waterborne supply chain commercial analysis and solutions.

Just some of the challenges faced by Logmarin, while helping its clients to combat their bottlenecks, include:

• the magnitude of the world’s largest floating HUB Ore Fabrica, designed to unload iron ore — the biggest bulk-carrier ever built;
• the gentle nature of the Great Barrier Reef and Queensland Environmental Authority for a green coal supply chain project;
• the cement distribution optimization in New Zeeland;
• the harsh environmental condition in Siberia for log handling and transportation;
• the efficient and reliable coal supply chain for a new power station in Vietnam;
• the long and inherent complexity of the coal supply chain from Montana mines to Korea;
• the support for LNG terminal design optimization in Ghana

Logmarin’s main tools to configure the industry’s waterborne supply chain as effectively as possible, with given resources and constraints upstream (supplier end) and downstream (user end), are:

Log.Des is utilized to identify the optimal solution assuring that the selected supply chain strategy will work in the real world as planned by this software, meeting the project target and expectations.

It allows studying and analysing the interaction between every single link of the supply chain (production, inland transport, storage, river and ocean freight, terminals, etc up to the consumer) in order to evaluate the impact of potential changes before their occurrences, thus enabling Logmarin to:

• create a real and accurate model of the end-user supply chain in an animated computer environment
• trial alternative scenarios in a digital (free-risk) environment v estimate and foresee the dynamic development of events and interaction of any links of the supply chain (effectively answering the question,“What If?”)

With the knowledge gained (and thanks to Log.Des output), new supply chains and related infrastructures (links) can be designed with the optimum Capex and Opex balance, (avoiding wasteful expenditure), assuring that the key links (cranes, storage, fleet, equipment etc) are duly sized, relevant utilization maximized and risks (detention, lack of reliability, environmental impact, process bottlenecks, weather and physical restrictions, etc) are duly identified and minimized.

This process allows understanding how various system links interact with each other and how they affect the overall performance thus achieving efficiency in the whole supply chain (door-to-door).