Port of Hamburg reports strong
growth of 8% in seaborne cargo handling
After a somewhat subdued upward trend for the first three
months of the year, the Port of Hamburg now reflects signs of
significant growth once again. The total of 89.4mt (million
tonnes) of cargo handled in the first three quarters of 2010
represents an increase of 8% over the same period of the
previous year. On the import side, Port of Hamburg Marketing
— the marketing organization of the Port of Hamburg —
recorded cargo-handling figures of 51.8mt (+11.8%). Exports via
Hamburg also recorded a positive trend with 37.6mt (+3.3%).
General cargo, the dominant segment in Hamburg, showed
marked growth of 8.6%, with a total of 60.2mt handled. The bulk
cargo segment also contributed to the growth in the total
volume of cargo handled at Germany’s biggest universal port
with 29.2mt (+6.9%) for the first nine months of this year.
With a total of 5.9 million TEUs (20-foot standard containers)
handled, the container segment recorded double-digit growth of
10.7% in the first nine months of 2010.
In September alone, some 744,000 TEUs were handled. This
corresponds to an increase of 25.1% and represents the best
ever monthly container handling figures recorded since
November 2008. The positive trend in container handling in
Hamburg also reflects Germany’s much-improved overall
economic situation. According to preliminary forecasts by the
German Federal Statistical Office, German exports for
September 2010 were up 22.5% year-on-year, and imports were
18.0% higher than in September 2009.
After a difficult first quarter, container handling at the Port of
Hamburg emerged from the crisis over subsequent months, and
an evaluation of the figures for the first nine months of the year
points to a return to double-digit growth of 10.7%. The
container terminals at the Port of Hamburg handled a total of
5.9 million TEU (20-foot standard containers) in the first three
quarters of 2010. The decline in empty-containers handling, a
result of the temporary relocation of a number of feeder service
during the crisis year of 2009, has now been arrested. In the
first nine months, 912,000 empty containers were handled in
Hamburg, 15% more than in the same period of 2009. Figures
for the handling of loaded containers show a stable upward
trend even for those first nine months, with growth recorded at
9.9% and five million TEU handled.
One reason for the growth in container handling is the
resumption of the China and Asia services which the shipping
companies had temporarily suspended during the financial
markets and economic crisis. Added to this are numerous new
full-container and feeder services, lik e the FAL-5 service
operated by the two shipping companies CMA CGM and Maersk
Line, and the concentration in Hamburg of the Baltic Sea feeder
services operated by the TEAM LINES shipping company, all of
which resulted in a major increase in the volume of container
handling in Hamburg.
In the first nine months of this year, container traffic to and
from Asian regions grew by 13% compared with the same period
last year, to a total of 3.5 million TEU. Container trade to and
from America amounted to 587,000 TEU (+13.9%), the Africa
route recorded 150,000 TEU (+25.7%), and the European feeder
and short-sea services, an important segment for Hamburg,
totalled 1.6 million TEU (+3.7%).
Handling of non-containerized general cargo reached 1.9mt
(+4.8%) in the months from January to September 2010. This
growth is largely due to an increase in exports of project cargo
and vehicles, which were up by 22.9 and 15.4% respectively.
“The cargo-handling figures for the first three quarters of
2010 indicate that the strongly performing container segment in
particular recorded double-digit growth on almost every trade
route. Bulk cargo handling figures over the first nine months
benefited from a massive boost in iron ore imports: they almost
doubled in volume compared with the same period of the
previous year, to 6.7mt, an increase of 91.2%,” said Claudia Roller,
CEO of Port of Hamburg Marketing.
Iron ore imports shipped via Hamburg are destined for
Germany’s steel industry, where production has already reached
about 83% of full capacity in response to a marked jump in
demand after the crisis year of 2009.
Handling of iron ore and other grabbable cargo, a segment
especially hard hit by the effects of the crisis last year, has
recovered strongly and is almost back to 2008 levels. The
suction cargo segment recorded 4.7mt in total, falling short of
the previous year’s result (–21.5%). The throughput of liquid
cargo totalled 10.2mt (–4.6%).
For the year 2010 as a whole, Claudia Roller expects an
increase in container trade of more than 11% up to nearly 8
million TEU in the Port of Hamburg. The total volume of
seaborne cargo handled in the year 2010 as a whole is likely to
confirm the positive trend of the first nine months, to reach
more than 120mt, representing growth in a range between eight
and 9%.
 
Safer shipping of dangerous goods
with new tool ‘GL Cargo’
 New chemicals and other dangerous goods bring new challenges
for their safe shipment by sea. This is reflected by a new
amendment to SOLAS II-2/19 Carriage of Dangerous Goods, which
focuses on the corresponding requirements for equipment on
board. International agreements control the transport of
dangerous goods across international borders. Each mode of
transport — inland waterways, sea, air, road and rail — has
different safety requirements and therefore its own international
convention or code based on the UN Model Regulations.
With the new amendment coming into force on 1 January 2011,
Germanischer Lloyd (GL) has launched a database service “GL Cargo”,
allowing its users easy access to all equipment requirements on board
of a vessel.
Most goods consigned for transport pose no danger to those
involved in transporting them, to members of the public, or to
the environment. However, some goods are potentially
hazardous — they might, for example, be poisonous to humans
and/or the environment, explosive, flammable or radioactive.
The use, and therefore transport, of dangerous goods
throughout the world is necessary to maintain both quality of
life and sustainable development.
Friedo Holtermann, a marine engineer at Germanischer Lloyd
(GL), explains the benefits of the new databank: “With GL Cargo,
a user can just tick off the types of cargo space and goods classes,
and then leave the remaining work to our system which can
automatically generate a report on all requirements about cargo
holds and equipments, such as fire extinguishing system, water
supplies, ventilation, detection system, etc. This tool makes it no
longer drudgery for ship owners, operators and charterers to
figure out what specific requirements their ships have to fulfil
because a comprehensive report can be produced no matter
how many types of dangerous goods their vessels will transport.”
GL Cargo contains all provisions of SOLAS II-2/19 adopted
by Resolution MSC 269(85), as well as the revised standard
format for the Document of Compliance for the Carriage of
Dangerous Goods according to MSC.1/Circ.1266. It covers all
dangerous goods in packaged form carried by multi-purpose
vessels, containerships and Ro-Ro vessels and all solid dangerous
goods in bulk shipped by bulk carriers and multi-purpose vessels.
GL Cargo is also used to generate and print out the Document
of Compliance in the new standard format as long as all relevant
information about space type and goods classes is uploaded to
the database. “This brings further convenience to our clients
and GL alike,” Friedo Holtermann added.
GL has been authorized by major Flag State Administrations
to provide the new Document of Compliance after conducting
surveys and reviewing documents and
drawings of ships. Existing documents for
ships in service will remain valid until they
need to be re-issued on the occasion of
change of flag or class renewal. GL has
developed additional tools enabling its clients to comply with a
variety of rules and regulations in a convenient and time efficient
way. All these tools are available at GL’s corporate website.
 
ABOUT GERMANISCHER LLOYD
Germanischer Lloyd is a ship classification society and an
international technical assurance and consulting company for the
energy sector. The company employs 7,000 engineers, surveyors,
experts in 80 countries. The global network consists of 212
locations around the globe.
GL is dedicated to ensuring the safety of life and property at
sea, and the prevention of pollution of the marine environment.
As an independent third party, GL is developing state-of-the-art
rules, procedures and guidance for ship owner, ship yards and
the maritime supply industry in order to offer relevant answers
in times of economic challenges and tight regulatory regimes.
GL classes container ships, tankers, bulk carriers, multipurpose
vessels, high-speed ferries and cruise ships as well as super
yachts and sport boats. GL’s fleet in service amounts to 90
million gross tonnes. More than 7,000 ships are currently
surveyed on a regular basis by th company.
The focus of its worldwide services is along the entire life
cycle oil and gas — upstream, midstream, and downstream,
renewables and energy installations onshore and offshore. This
includes safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.
 
 
Bulk handling is the core business
of the Seaports of Niedersachsen
When it comes to bulk shipments, the Seaports of
Niedersachsen offer many attractive solutions to its customers.
With a large amount of developed space for future cargo
handling, experienced handling and storage specialists and
generalists of all types, the Seaports are ready for new challenges
in the years to come. The group of ports, which includes Brake,
Cuxhaven, Emden, Leer, Nordenham, Oldenburg, Papenburg, Stade and
Wilhelmshaven, is benefiting from the trend of containerization which is
forcing the bulk and breakbulk shipping industry to the margins in
many other locations. The Seaports of Niedersachsen are experts in
handling dry bulk cargoes like agricultural products (grain, feedstuffs,
fertilizers, foodstuffs) coal, building materials, chemical products and oil.
“Many ports want to attract container lines and concentrate just
on containerized cargoes,” says Andreas Bullwinkel, managing
director of Seaports of Niedersachsen, which is the port groups’
umbrella marketing organization. “In fact during the economic
crisis, some ports turned back to the bulk sector but in the
long-term they will return to container handling. Our ports in
Niedersachsen, however, are specialized in the handling of dry
and liquid bulk and are interested in long-term partnerships to
its customers in that field.”
The port of Brake has expanded its capacities among others
to increase bulk handling. The local operator J. Müller Terminals
is investing about €30 million in an extension of 30 hectares,
including an additional 270 metres berth for seagoing vessels.
The government of the Niedersachsen province is investing a
further €40 million in this extension. This ‘Northern Extension’,
as it is called, will be followed by dredging the river Weser to a
depth of 12.8 metres in 2011. Also, road and rail links to the
hinterland will be enlarged within the next years.
In Brake, agricultural products are handled; in fact, the port is
among the European leaders in this field. The Brake-based
J. Müller Agri Terminal has a new warehouse with a capacity of
40,000 tonnes for dry bulk goods. It is equipped with a fully
automatic conveyor belt system which connects the warehouse
to the silos. The modern equipment ensures that
it is possible to store several bulk products inside
the warehouse without getting in contact with
each other, so cross-contamination is completely
avoided.
Rhenus Midgard in Wilhelmshaven is
establishing the first deepwater-terminal in
Germany for bulk commodities. The
‘Niedersachsenbrücke’ coal terminal is currently
being extended by the federal state of
Niedersachsen, which owns the facility and which
has invested €20 million in it. Rhenus Midgard
will then implement a new conveyor belt system
and storage facilities to prepare for fully laden
Capesize bulkers; it will invest up to €100 million
in this project. Currently Rhenus is handling up to
1.3mt (million tonnes) of coal imports for a closeby
power station, which is directly connected by a
conveyer belt system. In the medium-term the company will
bring in volumes of coal up to 6mt. Nowadays about 55% of
German coal imports are handled in the ports of the ARA
(Amsterdam–Rotterdam–Antwerp) range. Capesize bulkers are
mainly dispatched in Rotterdam, but there are already shortages.
Wilhelmshaven provides a depth of 18.50 metres which will absorb
those shortages and helps the port of Wilhelmshaven to move
up to Europe’s number two in coal importing.
The handling of bulk is also one of the core competences of
the port of Nordenham which supplies coal to several power
stations in Germany.
Dry bulk is very important for the three municipal seaports Leer,
Oldenburg and Papenburg. First of all, agricultural products and
building materials are the main commodities handled in these ports.
Oldenburg is ideallyexcellently to the German hinterland via the so-called
‘Küstenkanal’, an important waterway connecting this port as
well as Nordenham and Brake to the Dortmund–Ems–Kanal.
With that channel, the region has access to the ‘Ruhrgebiet’ and
ports in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The port of Papenburg is well connected via the river Ems to
the above-mentioned regions. Bulk goods handled there are,
mainly, peat and building materials. The peat, imported mostly
from Russia and the Baltic States, is partly processed in
Papenburg to garden mould which is distributed to customers all
over Europe.
Seaports of Niedersachsen — centre of the offshore industry
at the north-sea coast
Today the ports of Brake, Cuxhaven, Emden, Stade and
Wilhelmshaven are already leading partners of the offshore wind
energy industry.
 
FACTS, FIGURES AND GENERAL INFORMATION:
Cuxhaven, with its ideal geographical position at the river Elbe
and direct access to the north-sea (no locks), is one of the two
existing base ports for the off-shore industry on the German
north-sea coast.
Existing infrastructures, like the multi-purpose terminal,
operated by Rhenus Cuxport, with its four berths and the
approximately 24-hectare heavy-lift areas, offering optimal
facilities for the handling of all components for the wind parks of
the future. A fourth berth will extend the available area by an
additional nine hectares. Two heavy-lift ro-ro ramps with a
capacity of 350 metric tonnes are available. The extension of the
Cuxhaven port facilities with two additional berths started in
May 2010.
Since mid 2007, the Cuxport-terminal has offered a heavy-lift
platform with a maximum load of 90 metric tonnes per m2.
Cuxhaven Steel Construction Company (CSC) has produced
a large number of 450-tonne ‘tripiles’ for the ‘BARD Offshore 1’
wind park. These were transported via Cuxhaven to the
windfield. The handling of these components took place at berth
no 8, with the CSC-owned gantry crane. This offshore terminal
was built by the Federal State of Niedersachsen, which invested
€48 million into this infrastructure.
Messrs. Ambau are also producing the tower sections in
Cuxhaven, with direct access to the port.
Both producing sites of Messrs Ambau and the CSC Steel
Construction Company are directly connected with the port via
a heavy-lift-road.
Via the port of Emden about 240 complete windmills of the
multi-megawatt-types are planned to be transported into the
different wind parks in the north-sea. First shipments took place
this year for the ‘BARD Offshore 1’ wind park, about 100km
north-west of the island of Borkum. The port of Emden is active
today as a base port for maintenance and repair operations with
a wide variety of different services. The offshore specialist
Messrs. BARD Engineering operates its main office in Emden. In
Emden, BARD produces its own rotor-blades as well as glassfibre
reinforced plastic components.
Beside this, Emden is the ‘home port’ of the windmill
producer ENERCON which has been using the port of Emden
for years for its worldwide shipments of onshore windmills.
The local shipping company ‘AG EMS’ and its subsidiary OLT
(Ostfriesische Lufttransport) offers a variety of different services
for the supply and logistics of the offshore-wind parks via sea
and air.
Via the port of Brake, one of the leading companies of the
wind energy industry, General Electric (GE), exports its
windmills to worldwide destinations. The port operator J. Müller
has developed a highly sophisticated supply-chain management
system for this key-account, which is enabling GE to maintain
just-in-time material supply from the ‘screw to the blade’ to the
various construction sites. Also the port of Brake is well
prepared for handling off-shore components.
The port of Stade is home of a production-site of the
companies AREVA and Prokon. Both companies use the port for
the handling and transport of their components to various
destinations.
Wilhelmshaven was already active in the field of offshore
wind energy when the first German offshore wind park ‘Alpha
Ventus’ was built. The huge tripiles and the transformer-platform
for the Alpha Ventus were assembled in Wilhelmshaven and
were transported via this port to their final destination in the
North Sea.
Additional interesting and valuable endorsements of the
wind-energy-cluster in Niedersachsen are delivered by the SGL
Rotec GmbH, Lemwerder (close to the port of Brake), which
specializes in the production of rotor-blades.
The Fassmer shipyard at Berne (also close to the port of
Brake) produces glass-fibre-reinforced plastic components for
the gear-boxes.
Finally, the Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke in Nordenham
(River Weser) produce the submarine cables for the off-shore
windmills, and ship these via the port of Nordenham, operated
by Rhenus Midgard.
 
HANDLING FIGURES JANUARY–SEPTEMBER 2010
Maritime traffic through the port of Brake in the first nine
months of 2010 increased by 9% up to 3.647mt (million tonnes)
(3.357mt from January to September 2009). Notably, the
handling of grain grew about 42% (452,292 tonnes from January
to September 2010; 318,862 tonnes from January to September
2009). Depending on the recovered turnover of iron and steel
as well as pulp there is an increase of 23% in the field of general
cargo altogether (1.055mt from January to September 2010;
859,127 tonnes from January to September 2009).
The total results from the seaport of Cuxhaven increased
about 27% from January to September 2010 compared with the
same period in 2009 (1.602mt 2009 versus 1.261mt 2008). This
can be seen as the result of rising handling of ro-ro cargo and
new cars. In the first nine months of 2010 a total of 190,598
new cars were imported and exported via the port of Cuxhaven
(+ 55%; 122,62 cars from January to September 2009).
In Emden volumes of new cars and forest products increased.
The car sector increased about 26% of its volumes of the
previous year (805,629 cars from January to September 2010
versus 570,230 cars from January till September 2009).
However, terminal operators expect to exceed one million cars
handled in Emden in 2010.
The handled volumes of cellulose and paper increased by 16%
(482,144 tonnes from January to September 2010; 417.049
tonnes from January to September 2009). In total 3.263mt have
been handled in terms of maritime traffic from January to
September 2010, which means an increase of 26% compared to
the same period in 2009.
The port of Nordenham increased the handling of coal (+9%;
1.639mt from January to September 2010; 1.508mt in 2009). All
in all, the handling raised about 6% (2.442mt) in maritime traffic
compared with the period January to September 2009 (2.304mt).
The seaport of Stade handled about 3.820mt of goods in
maritime traffic from January to September 2010, which means
4% growth compared with the same period of 2009 (3.680mt).
The handling of liquid bulk grew by 13% from 1.732mt from
January to September 2009 to 1.954mt from January to
September 2010.
Turnover in Wilhelmshaven fell to 19.262mt from January to
September 2010 (27.671mt from January to September 2009)
which meant a decrease of 30%. This result is caused by a
reduced volume of crude oil as well as a reduction of mineral-oil
products due to a huge refinery stopped production in winter of
2009 and presumably will not start production again but will be
shut down.
The municipal port of Oldenburg lost about 31% in its seagoing
cargo handling in 2010 (80,568 tonnes coming from a
turnover of 116,300 tonnes from January to September 2009).
The port of Leer increased its sea-going traffic about 22%
(from 56,442 tonnes from January to September 2009 to 68,810
tonnes in 2010).
In the port of Papenburg an increase of 2% in maritime traffic
has been recorded (353,730 tonnes from January till September
2010; 345.544 tonnes from January till September 2009).
 
Seaport of Brake — tradition combined
with ultra modern installations
The seaport of Brake is situated on the left bank of the River
Weser, 26km upstream from the estuary. The shape of the port
is determined by its 3km long riverside quays.
Brake has a long tradition in handling of bulk cargoes. At the
deep-sea discharging berths, ultra-modern silo installations
ensure rapid, cost-effective loading and unloading of bulk
carriers, with a draught up to 39 feet and a length up to 275m.
After deepening the River Weser in 2011, ships with a draught of
42 feet can berth here.
The port of Brake is owned and managed by Niedersachsen
Ports GmbH & Co. KG. The operating is done by private
companies here mainly by J. Müller Terminals. J. Müller operates
the biggest feedstuffs terminal in Europe, with a storage capacity
of 360,000 tonnes.
Located close to the Oldenburger Münsterland, Europe’s
largest compound feed area, the port of Brake is ideally suited
for handling and storage of grains, feedstuffs, oilseeds, fertilizer,
renewable natural resources, biomass products, sugar, foodrelated
products, other bulk and agri-goods.
Brake is Germany’s largest port for the import of feedstuffs
and a leading logistics centre for forest products.
 
HANDLING FACILITIES
To handle these goods the port is equipped with:
  • 2 pneumatic elevators with a capacity of 1,400tph (metric tonnes per hour);
  • 3 luffing jib cranes up to 35 metric tonnes;
  • 4 gantry cranes up to 88 metric tonnes;
  • 3 mobile harbour cranes up to 140 metric tonnes;
  • 3 shiploaders (1,800tph); and
  • 4 truck/railcar loading stations (2,400tph)
  • The Agri Terminal can guarantee the complete unloading of over 10,000 metric tonnes of grain from a block train in a single day.
  • HINTERLAND CONNECTION
The port of Brake has excellent transportation connections:
  • close to the sea;
  • situated on an outstanding inland waterway network;
  • electrified railroad line; and
  • connected to the German motorways.
TRANSSHIPMENT
Commodity (mt* per annum)   2008   2009    2010 (estimate)
Grain/feedstuffs                       3.084    2.422    2.800
Sulphur solid and liquid            0.561    0.520     0.300
Palm oil                                     0.050    0.244    0.390
Bulk goods (diverse)                  0.080    0.195    0.210
Forest products                         1.480    0.908    0.992
Iron/steel                                 0.459      0.326   0.450
Project cargo/other goods       0.028    0.060     0.050
Total seagoing traffic                5.742    4.675    5.200
* million tonnes
 
PORT EXTENSION AREA NIEDERSACHSENKAI
The Niedersachsen quay, suitable for heavy-weight cargo, was
expanded in two stages to its current length of 450m. This
project created an extended port area of about 50ha in the first
line and in the second line 70ha port development area for port
related industry.
 
 
HOCHTIEF and duisport found joint venture
‘duisport’ (Duisburger Hafen AG) and HOCHTIEF
Concessions AG, a subsidiary of the international construction
services specialist HOCHTIEF, have founded a joint venture to
develop ports and port terminals together worldwide.
The focus of the new company will be managing, operating
and marketing ports and port terminals. This will be
supplemented by planning, development and construction
activities. duisport is providing its port technical and logistics
expertise in particular, along with the possibility of integrating
projects into its existing logistics network.
HOCHTIEF Concessions is contributing its expertise and
international market knowledge in structuring, financing and
managing large infrastructure projects. The company will also
open up access to the global HOCHTIEF network.
“The development of port projects fits outstandingly with
the existing HOCHTIEF strategy,” underlined Dr. Herbert
Lutkestratkötter, chairman of the executive board of
HOCHTIEF.
The group represents all services connected with
infrastructure and in doing so offers all solutions under one
roof — from planning and financing through construction up
to strategic orientation or operational management. “With
our experienced team we are thus best positioned to
successfully tap and cultivate the strongly growing port
segment,” emphasized the board head.
“By founding this company duisport will be in a position to
further develop and permanently establish our already
implemented steps to internationalization in a target-oriented
manner and to realize logistics projects in strategic markets
with value creating consequences for NRW,” said Erich Staake,
chief executive officer of Duisburger Hafen AG.
After committees at both companies had already approved
the founding, the shareholder agreements were signed
mid-November last year. Both companies will hold 50% each
of the new company, which will have its headquarters in
Duisburg. Subject to approval under cartel law the company
will start work on 1 January 2011. The first joint projects are
already being planned, including projects in Europe and South
America.
HOCHTIEF Concessions is responsible for developing and
realizing concession and operator projects in the HOCHTIEF
Group and is among the most important industrial
infrastructure investors worldwide.
The areas of business of HOCHTIEF Concessions are
airports, roads, social infrastructure and other public-private
partnership (PPP) projects. In the airport business segment,
the company is involved in airport privatizations, takes over
concessions and offers consultancy services.
In public infrastructure projects the company provides
planning, financing, construction and operations for roads and
social infrastructure.
HOCHTIEF Concessions currently holds stock in six
airports. Its portfolio also includes seven roads with a total
length of over 750 kilometers as well as more than 100 social
infrastructure buildings.
Duisburger Hafen AG is the holding and management
company of the Port of Duisburg, the largest inland port in
the world. The duisport Group offers full service packages
for the port and logistics location in infra- and suprastructure
including relocation management.
In addition, its subsidiaries offer logistics services such as
developing and optimizing transport and logistics chains, rail
freight transport services, facility management and packing
logistics.
 
Ports and harbours rely on KRÖGER
Crane installations are equipped with light and environmentally
friendly grabs from the Lower Rhine
KRÖGER grabs have become a firm fixture in ports and
harbours not only because customers like their zeromaintenance
requirement, but also because they offer further
outstanding technical benefits. Above all, these features still
include their weight-optimized configuration which is achieved
by means of special materials and an innovative design. One of
their major benefits is the improved useful capacity that they
provide.
Among other installations, an 8m3 and an 11m³ STLBG
loading grab for handling ore and fertilizers have been supplied
to the port of Rostock, for example. And with good reason: the
zero-maintenance STLB cable grab is ideally suited to the
demanding handling of all types of bulk loads in seaports and
inland harbours, both of open design or as closed loading grabs
to protect the environment and for handling bulk loads which
create dust.
The same also applies for VLG clamshell cable grabs with a
high grab capacity thanks to their favourable weight — they also
require zero maintenance for an optimum service life, reliability
and environmental protection.
KRÖGER grabs have been in operation in almost all German
ports and harbours for a long time, both on the coast, e.g. in
Hamburg, Brunsbüttel and Bremen, or in inland harbours such as
Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Andernach and Ludwigshafen.
Because efficiency and productivity pay off very quickly —
and KRÖGER shows that grabs can meet both economic and
ecological requirements. And since there is no need for the
annoying lubrication of KRÖGER special grabs, time savings are
also a convincing factor. Further grabs have been ordered for
various ports and harbours, for example: a 6.25m³ STLBG for
handling ore, a 7m³ MZGG for handling fodder and a 3.2m³
MSGK for handling scrap as a replacement investment, just to
mention some of the current orders. As can be seen, KRÖGER
Greifertechnik is well established with its entire product range in
German ports and harbours.
KRÖGER has a constantly growing reputation for grabs that
are vastly superior to many conventional, much more heavy and
maintenance-intensive products. This the reason why KRÖGER
is motivated to expand its radius further throughout Europe to
Poland, as well as to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey,
France and the United Kingdom. The Baltic seaports of Wismar,
Stettin and Gdynia are also currently making a grab for high
technology solutions from the Lower Rhine. The Polish ports
wanted to improve their profitability, which made it imperative
for them to replace their entire equipment. This was particularly
necessary for the grabs in their crane installations. KRÖGER is
now also handling loads there.
 
 
SCHADE — at the forefront of stacker/reclaimer technology
Since 1949, SCHADE has been focused on the chain reclaimer
market and with over 600 worldwide references can justifiably
claim market leader status and recent successes in China and
Australia, delivering world class engineering solutions to
consumer and supplier.
Since the integration of SCHADE into the AUMUND Group
in 2001 there has followed a period of outstanding growth in
sales benefiting from the stability offered within an international
group and access to AUMUND sales and service subsidiaries
located worldwide.
In China in particular SCHADE has delivered some50 circular storages
each with a diameter of 120 metres. Typically, these are able to store 180,000
tonnes of coal live, available for continuous reclaim.
Such equipment would be linked directly to the power plant and a single storage would
satisfy a typical 600mW generating unit receiving coal from deep sea vessels. For fast vessel
discharge the storage system may have a stacking rate of around 4,000tph (tonnes per hour) of coal and a reclaim rate
of 2,000tph.
SCHADE is also represented at the mine site ,with its huge stacker and reclaimer equipment installed in manymining operations, particularly in Australia at the Blackwater Mitsubishi Alliance washing plant a circular
blending bed system provides homogenization of coal before washing, stacking out and train loading. The blending bed
provides 60,000 tonnes live capacity at a handling rate of 2,200tph.
In a typical power plant, the coal is stacked out at high capacity for fast train/ship discharge but blended at a lower rate
to match the station demand. However, in a coal prep-plant the problem is in reverse where the reclaim rate from the main stockpile is critical to reduce the train or ship loading time for maximum productivity and in this situation a SCHADE twin boom portal reclaimer can recover coal at 4,000tph per stockpile.
However, SCHADE is not resting on its past successes and is
actively developing new products to extend the boundaries of
present solutions. For example the standard circular storage at
120 metres diameter is sufficient to sustain a single generating
set of 600mW but typically now utilities are building these sets
in pairs to satisfy the insatiable power demand in developing
economies, China particularly.
SCHADE is developing a new series of circular stacker and
reclaimer systems to extend the diameter to 150 metres. This
gives an effective volume of 400,000m3 or 360,000 tonnes of
coal and provides sufficient storage to supply two 600mW
generating sets from a single circular stacker and reclaimer
system.
If one compares a new single circular storage at 360,000
tonnes to a traditional longitudinal storage of the same live
volume then the footprint of the circular storage will be around
25% of the longitudinal equivalent, a substantial saving in land
area and enclosure costs.
In addition to its traditional markets in the power and mining
industries SCHADE is also active in the cement sector with
notable recent successes within the East and West European
markets. In the cement market the use of circular storages is
also very popular, being both economical and easy to enclose,
offering considerable environmental benefits in dust control and
eliminating runoff water pollution. Illustrated in figure 4 is a
typical circular blending bed system for the Holcim plant in
Dotternhausen (Germany) handling limestone at a rate of
200tph.
Located in southern Germany amongst attractive rolling hills
environmental impact was clearly a major consideration with the
new plant development.
From this viewpoint the enclosed circular storage, as seen in
figure 5 is often an attractive solution with the lowest plant
footprint per tonne stored. However, it is not the only solution
and particularly where dissimilar materials must be stored in
segregated bays the longitudinal storage with travelling stacker
and cantilevered boom reclaimer is an attractive viable option.
In this facility at Kelete Cement in Turkmenistan a variety of
materials are handled including gypsum and various additives
within the discrete concrete bays as illustrated. Additionally on
this site a circular storage and blending bed is also provided
handling limestone and clay, similar to that supplied at
Dotternhausen.
SCHADE remains at the forefront of reclaimer development
from the largest machine used in mining and power down to
more modest solutions for process industries such as cement,
chemicals and biomass as alternative fuels.
In addition to the storage facilities and equipment, SCHADE
has a whole new range of very exciting products based on the
rail wagon tippler technology originally offered some 50 years
back by AUMUND.
SCHADE has taken on the development of this product to
meet with current operational requirements and extended the
range to include ‘O’ frame designs plus ‘C’ frame and pivot frame
machines. All of these are offered with automated wagon
chargers and indexers allowing for continuous operation
independent of mainline locomotives or even a shunter.
A ‘C’ frame design with wagon charger
brings the wagon into the tippler, the tippler partially rotates the
wagon to discharge the load and returns the empty wagon to
the line where it is moved clear by the charger.
Whilst the first wagon is discharged the second unit is
brought forward and the operation repeats on an automated
cycle.
Of course this equipment may be supplied with feeders from
the AUMUND range and the package supply extended to include
the storage equipment also if required.
For SCHADE the expansion of the circular storage range and
the addition of the wagon tippler systems open new and exciting
opportunities.
 
German bulk loading technologies made by MUHR
Major bulk handling specialist Muhr GmbH believes that there
are many reasons that it is a credible partner in bulk loading
technology.
Muhr has over 50 years of continual improvement and
successful innovation. It also offers comprehensive expertise
that enables it to offer wide-ranging services, from the design,
production and installation of a small loading telescope for the
dust-free closed loading of milk powder into a silo truck, right
up to the production of a huge loading system for loading clinker
on a freighter — or even a railcar dumping system for
simultaneously unloading of up to five open railcars.
The company has great flexibility in design, which is not
restricted to a few product lines, but which also allows for
tailor-made solutions that satisfy specific customer demands, to
achieve the optimum efficiency, longevity and reliability.
In 1959, Erhard Muhr senior founded the company for the
planning and assembly of mill and silo facilities. With the
development of the machine building factory in Brannenburg, the
foundation stone was laid for a company that has been growing
ever since. With the move into a modern administration and
production building and 1,500m² office, production and storage
space, in 1991, the company has tripled in size. With the
completion of a new production hall, the year 2000 saw the
takeover of the loading technology business area from
Möllerwerke GmbH, Bielefeld. In 2006, the business divisions of
trash rack cleaning systems and hydraulic steel structures from
Pühler GmbH, Bergneustadt were integrated. And in 2008, the
biggest trash rack cleaning system in the world successfully
began operation, having been developed and manufactured by
Muhr.
MUHR STANDARD AND SPECIAL SYSTEMS FOR THE LOADING,
MIXING AND DUMPING OF BULK MATERIALS
Muhr offers bulk loading systems for the open and closed and
primarily dust-free loading of the finest to the coarsest bulk
materials onto trucks, railcars, ships etc.
Bulk handling systems include:
  • closed loading;
  • open loading;
  • combined loading;
  • equipment modules;
  • residue-free loading;
  • optimum tank filling;
  • segregation-free loading;
  • loading vehicles;
  • mobile weighing/loading system MWV;
  • bellows;
  • additional range of products;
  • dust-free loading of the finest to the coarsest bulk materials from A to Z;
  • railcar dumping systems;
  • L-Tec rotary railcar dumping system; and
  • L high-TEC railcar dumping system.
Muhr railcar dumping systems are used during all conceivable
unloading processes concerning bulk materials in production
halls, outdoors and underground. They guarantee cost-effective
unloading by avoiding unnecessary manoeuvring space. Muhr
railcar dumping systems are especially suitable for the rapid,
automatic unloading of trains with open railcars.`