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ALE installs new turbine and generator at a power plant in Egypt

ALE has recently completed the swift installation of a turbine and generator at the Supercritical Power Plant in Assiut, Egypt. To install the steam turbine, weighing 240t and measuring 8m long, ALE used a gantry and 200t capacity strand jacks to lift the turbine 16m from the ground. As the entrance to the building was perpendicular to the installation location, the turbine needed to be turned by 90°. This was performed using skidding beams and the gantry was then skidded over the installation location, where the turbine was lowered into position on its bench. These manoeuvres were repeated for the installation of the stator generator, weighing 296t and measuring 10m long.

This operation was completed as part of a series of upgrades at the power plant that will help to contribute to Egypt’s drive for sustainable urban development and economic growth.

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Mammoet and ALE confirm advanced purchase discussions

Mammoet and ALE have announced that the two companies are currently negotiating a purchase agreement, under which the Netherlands-based international heavy lift specialist Mammoet would acquire the UK-based rival.

Mammoet stated: “Should these discussions result in a signed agreement, the companies will seek approval from the relevant competition authorities. In the meantime, the companies will continue to act independently of each other, as competitors.”

At this point, Mammoet and ALE wish to refrain from publishing more details about their acquisition talks.

Mammoet is owned by SHV, a privately held Dutch investment company and employs around 5,000 people worldwide. The company has a fleet of SPMT’s totaling more than 3200 axle lines including over 1200 cranes with a maximum capacity of up to 5000t.

ALE is a private company headquartered in the UK with more than 40 offices worldwide, employing over 1,350 people. The heavy lift specialist has a fleet of over 100 cranes including large capacity based cranes as the AL.SK190 and the AL.SK350.

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AAL delivers for Felixstowe’s expansion project

AAL has recently delivered a cargo of four rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGs) to the Port of Felixstowe as a part of a development project. The ZPMC Chinese-made RTGs, measuring 32 m x 14 m x 30 m and weighing just under 200 t, were loaded in Shanghai and shipped to Felixstowe aboard the 31,000-DWT AAL Kobe vessel.

The new remote controlled RTGs will serve Berths 8 and 9 at the Port and are capable of stacking containers six-high to enable more efficient use of the new yard. All four units were discharged using Kobe’s own heavy lift cranes with 700 t maximum lifting capacity.

Christophe Grammare, AAL commented: “We are delighted to be back in the UK and calling for the first time in Felixstowe with such an impressive project cargo. Although the UK is a significant container shipping market – Felixstowe being the 6th busiest container port in Europe with about 26 million tons of cargo each year – it is not immediately associated with project heavy lift cargo. The RTGs were shipped there on-deck of the AAL Kobe which, with a highly flexible cargo capacity of almost 40.000 cbm, was also carrying additional project cargo under-deck that was discharged a few days later in Ireland.”

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Mammoet deploys a new location in Antwerp

In order to support the growth of the largest European oil and chemical cluster on the Port of Antwerp, Mammoet has decided to install a new facility. The site is adjacent to the large deep-water Liberty-dock (Bevrijdingsdok). Thanks to this new location, Mammoet Belgium will be able to offer services with a fleet of new cranes ranging from 40-ton to 500-ton, tower cranes and SPMT’s, followed by an increase of its workforce in Antwerp.

Paul Van Vuren, Managing Director for Mammoet Belgium explains, “It is our strategy to continuously build on our offering to our clients and deliver efficient and cost-effective solutions. We aim to achieve this in Antwerp by investing in people and resources to maximize the potential of our new dock-side location.”

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Sarens performs tandem lift at the Al Bayt Stadium in Quatar

To be able to assemble the retractable roof of the Al Bayt football stadium in Quatar, Sarens, on behalf of the Italian construction company CIMOLAI, performed the lifting of this various elements using two crawler cranes.

The two machines were a Demag CC6800 crawler crane rigged in SWSL 78/84 configuration with 450t of superlift and 96m radius with a total load of 95t. The second cane was a Liebherr LR1750 rigged in SWSL 84/91 with 400t of superlift and 102m radius. Its total load was 29t.


This tandem lift had to be planned down to the smallest detail to take into account the pick-up position and travelling distance the cranes had to cover before drop-off. While the customer had planned to use three cranes to perform the lift, only two cranes were needed for the operation. It took Sarens two months to complete all the work on this site.

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Marine Maroc uses Enerpac SL400 gantry to transport 130 t HP heaters

The international logistics company Marine Maroc has used its new Enerpac SL400 gantry to install high pressure heaters (HP heaters) of 130 t at the site of the Safi coal-fired power plant in Southwest Morocco. Marine Maroc was in charge of transporting the heaters from the port of Safi to the plant. Upon arrival at the plant, the Enerpac SL400 telescopic hydraulic gantry was deployed for the first time in order to lift them from hydraulic modular trailers.


Equipped with three stage lifting cylinders, the SL400 lifts up to 9.14 metres at the top of the third stage and can handle up to 408 ton at the top of the first stage. For Marine Maroc, the gantry is equipped with powered side shift units for ease of manoeuvring loads. In addition, the SL400 also features an Intelli-Lift wireless control system.


For Mohammed Belaidi, Technical Department at Marine Maroc: “The SL400 is an outstanding addition to our heavy lifting capability for many power plant projects where the gantry can be readily deployed both outside and inside the plant when space is limited.”


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Ale contracted to lengthen a cruise ship in Palermo, Italy

Ale has been tasked to lengthen the Grimaldi Roma cruise ship in Palermo, Italy. To install the new section, weighing around 2,540 t, Ale deployed skid shoes varying from 500 t – 1,000 t capacity, along with 96 axle lines of SPMT in a configuration of 4 x 2 file 24. The new section was transported by SPMT’s, while the ship cut section, weighing around 10,500 t was skidded across skid tracks so the new section could be installed. The ship originally measured 225 m and once the new section was installed another 30 m was added onto the ship.
Ale has been contracted to lengthen two cruise ships, the Grimaldi Roma and Barcellona. The project started in late 2018 and is expected to be completed by the end of June 2019.

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Sarens installs two steel supports in Belarus

Sarens has just installed two steel supports for drilling shaft machines in Luban, Belarus. These two structures, designed to be as heavy as possible, consisted of 10 modules weighing between 40 and 178 t each. It took two months to carry out this operation undertaken on behalf of client JSC Promtechmontazh. Sarens used a Demag TC2800-1 truck crane, whose configuration had to be changed 3 times on this site, as well as a Grove GMK all-terrain crane delivered with 25 different trailers from the town of Grodno located 350 km away.
“The Sarens team successfully completed the installation according to our wishes. We hope for further productive cooperation,” said Vladimir Matrenkin, director of the JSC Promtechmontazh Soligorsk department.

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Sarens lifts a 250t trawler in the UK

In the British port of Whitby, the Sarens crew was asked to for launch the new Guiding Light trawler. This 26m long, 8m wide and 12m high boat weighing more than 250t required the use of a Demag TC2800-1 lattice boom mobile crane.
Indeed, the narrow limits of the site required the use of a powerful machine, stable and with a small footprint. The TC2800-1 was equipped with a 42 m main boom, a 30 m superlift back mast and a 200 t superlift counterweight.

Once the official launch ceremony was completed, the TC2800-1 lifted the entire mass of the trawler with its 200T superlift counterweight. The load was then slowly and precisely slewed anti-clockwise until it was directly above the water. The trawler was slowly lowered into the water, releasing the weight from the crane and completing a safe and successful lift.

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Ale optimises project costs on steel mill plant in Mexico

The heavy lift specialist Ale was contracted to lift modules, ranging from roof panels to plant modules including several items that were weighing up to 300t each (330 US tons) as a part of a bigger construction project for a new steel mill plant in Silao, located within the northern state of Guanajuato, Mexico. To execute this lifts Ale used a Liebherr LR11350 crawler crane, maximum lift capacity of 1,350 ton, with P boom. According to the heavy lift services provider, by using this configuration, they were able to minimise congestion on site and enable construction work to continue. As the client to continue other work without crane pad interfering, overall project costs and build schedules were optimized.