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Northport, at Port Klang, has acquired a new bulk crane to cope with the
increasing volume of bulk traffic at the port.
“The deployment of the bulk crane is timely as Northport is witnessing
increasing ship calls. The port received 42 bulk carriers in the
January-March period of this year, a 31 per cent growth against the
corresponding period in 2005. The new crane which is designed to handle
fertilizers, clinker, coal, marine salt, palm kernel and grains is expected
to be commissioned by middle of June 2006,” said the general manager of
Conventional Services, Ghazali Hassan.
Bulk throughput at the port grew by 15.9 per cent in the first quarter of
this year.
The new crane manufactured at Muhibbah Engineering’s subsidiary, Favelle
Favco Cranes (M) Sdn Bhd and Muhibbah Marine Engineering Sdn Bhd in Port
Klang.
Northport invested close to RM10million on the new crane, which has a free
digging capacity of 450 tonne/hr and an average handling rate of 300 tonne/hr.
The new bulk crane which was designed by Kroll Cranes A/S of Denmark will
complement the operations of two existing Kone cranes at the dry bulk
terminal and is expected to boost the productivity at the dry bulk terminal
by more than 50 per cent to 15,000 tonnes per day from present handling rate
of 6,000 tonnes per day.
“The arrival of new crane has greatly enhanced our handling capacity and
productivity at Northport’s bulk terminal. In fact the additional crane
allows us to deploy more cranes per ship. Depending on the size of vessels,
number of workable hatches and cargo condition, we expect to reduce the port
stay time of bulk carriers at the terminal tremendously,” said Ghazali.
The bulk crane is designed with an outreach of 36 metres, measured from the
crane centre, or approximately 28 metres from the edge of the fenders and
this allows us to cater for the increasing Panamax-sized vessel calling at
the terminal.
The crane is supplied with two grabs and with a rail-mounted hopper. The
grabs are manufactured by SMAG, a well-known grab manufacturer in Europe,
and are capable of scooping 12 m3 of cargo having a piled density of 0.8
tonne/m3.
“The acquisition of crane is part of the capacity enhancement measures
initiated by Northport to enhance the facilities at the Dry Bulk Terminal at
Northport. In anticipation for the arrival of new crane, a new substation
was constructed and the crane rails along the wharves were renewed in 2005,”
said Ghazali. |
