Page 8: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (September 2001)

Investment in Desimi

Konecranes-Munckloader:

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

Stig Gustavson, president and CEO KCI

Konecranes adoption of deck gantries promising gains of up to 50 percent in cargo han- dling 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 lat- est 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 Ship- ping 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 installa- tion 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 com- missioned 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-earn- ing deadweight is scarcely penalized.

Masterbulk is understood to be consid- ering upgrading the cargo handling out- fit on its preceding series of 39,000-dwt (Continued on page 10)

Aerial view of the KCI Konecranes facility.

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