Ing Jelis Verschoof

Rotterdam dry bulk stevedore EMO and the port authority are negotiating a new 30-hectare deep water concession exclusively for coal transhipment at the Maasvlakte.

There is an increasing trend for RTG manufacturers, particularly European suppliers, to design their product range to maximise productivity and lower life cycle costs. In normal circumstances and given like-for-like throughput figures, an RTG operation requires less land than a straddle carrier operation but is more labour-intensive and as labour costs are often more important than land costs, they may be the telling factor. However, if the productivity of the RTG operation can be increased to c

Following the contract to maintain Finnsteve’s straddle carriers, FLTs and terminal tractors in Kotka, Kalmar has secured a refurbishment deal from the Port of Tilbury to upgrade 13 of its straddle carriers. However, in this case, Kalmar will effectively be refurbishing third party machines as the contract relates to Nelcon diesel-electric machines delivered before Kalmar acquired Nelcon and no longer manufactured by Kalmar, having been replaced by its E-Drive designs.

Kalmar has developed an all-electric straddle carrier (ESC) design, with one 4-high unit being tested at TCB, Barcelona and another with twinlift spreader already sold to Maher Terminals, New Jersey.

Kalmar Industries has reported a 24 per cent increase in net sales in 2001 to almost E796 mill, with a 19 per cent return on capital employed. These figures represent about 26 per cent of Partek group’s consolidated sales in 2001 (E2.7 bill).

As first reported in last month’s issue of WorldCargo News (p31), Kalmar has suffered a setback at Southampton Container Terminals (SCT) where its long monopoly on straddle carrier sales has at last been broken by Noell.