More Muscle for a Distinctive Breed
Open-hatch bulk carrier technology, championed by specialist operators in the North American trade, is to be taken an important stage further through the adoption of deck gantries promising gains of up to 50 percent in cargo handling productivity. Whereas a 40-ton lift capacity is the norm for the traveling cranes fitted on such vessels, which are typically heavily involved in pulp and paper transportation, each of a new series of 48,000-dwt bulkers is to be equipped with a pair of Konecranes- Munckloader gantries plated at 68-tons apiece.
Designed for optimized handling and stowage of a wide range of unitized forestry goods, industrial cargoes, and containers, with the hatchways opening out to the full width of the holds, the latest newbuilds have been ordered from Oshima Shipbuilding. Singapore-based contractual owner Masterbulk will assign the four vessels to Star Shipping, which it jointly owns with Grieg Shipping of Norway.
Engineering and the key components for the deck gantries will be supplied from Konecranes VLC in Finland, although the crane structures will be manufactured and assembled in Korea by Daewoo. The cranes will be barged in fully-erected form to Japan, for installation by Oshima, in readiness for vessel handovers in 2003/2004.
Crane throughputs of up to 1,200-tons per hour are anticipated with the new equipment, signaling an important advance over a rates of around 800-tons per hour attributed to 40-ton units fitted to 39,000-dwt open-hatch bulkers commissioned in 1999/2000. A current series of newbuilds with 40-ton capacity cranes from the same stable is expected to achieve around 900-tons per hour per unit.
The significant growth in lift capacity and corresponding improvements in ship turnaround performance have been secured with only a marginal increase in equipment weight, so that revenue-earning deadweight is scarcely penalized.
Masterbulk is understood to be considering upgrading the cargo handling outfit on its preceding series of 39,000-dwt open-hatch bulkers, which used two 40- ton Konecranes-Munckloader gantries manufactured and fitted in Finland.
The ships came from Stocznia Szczecinska.
Stocznia Gdynia ordered a total of 14 cranes from Konecranes for a series of seven 40,000-dwt vessels due to be delivered to Westwood Shipping Line of the U.S. during 2002-2003. The age profile of the world fleet of open-hatch bulkers, reckoned to number 159 ships, suggests a steady replacement newbuild demand over the next 10 years.
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Content
- More Muscle for a Distinctive Breed page: 8
- A Shipboard Gantry Crane History page: 9
- Standards for A New Era page: 10
- Gladding-Hearn Delivers Premiere High Speed Passenger Cat page: 12
- Austal USA Readies 82-ft. Cat For Spring 2 0 0 2 Delivery page: 12
- A&B Industries Delivers Model-Bow Tug To Luhr Bros page: 14
- Morrelli and Melvin Teams Up With Knight And Carver page: 14
- Moran Commissions 10th Z-Drive Tug page: 15
- Sealift Ship To Be Christened Benavidez At Avondale Shipyard page: 15
- Commerce page: 18
- Shipping Industry Launches Ship Recycling Code page: 19
- Strategic Launches Shipping Support Tools page: 19
- Barge Management System Increases Efficiency page: 20
- Chiles Offshore Signs Two 9-Month Contracts With Shell page: 21
- Super Barge Touted For Strengths, Depths page: 24
- After 137 Years—A Legacy Prevails page: 26
- Maritime History page: 28
- Entering the Diesel Engine Age page: 31
- Janet M. McAllister Debuts In N.Y. Harbor page: 32
- C.W. Morse — An Innovative Vessel page: 34
- SCI Dedicates Houston Facility page: 37
- Gdansk Shipyard Leads With Myriad of Conversions/Repairs page: 38
- Hyundai, MAN B&W Are At Top of Engine Power page: 40
- Axial Fans Improve Engine Performance page: 48
- Rolls-Royce Debuts New Thruster Range page: 48
- Custom Thruster Solutions Help Save Time, Money page: 49
- Marine Training Via Simulation: As Real as it Gets page: 50
- KMSS Supplies Unit To Lairdside Maritime Center page: 51
- Litton's ECDIS Products Are N o w Compatible With C-MAP's ECs page: 60