Posted on

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.”

Posted on

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.”

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.”


Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Enerpac gantry installs Belgium’s first proton therapy units

Industrial installation company, Lifthing NV, has recently completed the installation of proton therapy units at the University Hospitals Leuven (UZ Leuven), Belgium’s first proton therapy center. Due to the space restrictions at UZ Leuven’s Gasthuisberg campus, Lifthing decided to use its Enerpac SBL500 gantry to install two 57-ton synchrocyclotrons and a 75-ton therapy unit. They were first skidded along the gantry’s skid tracks and then lowered into the research bunker and clinical treatment bunker respectively.

“Gentle and accurate handling was essential when handling the synchrocyclotrons and therapy unit,” said Pieterjan Van Iseghem, Managing Director of Lifthing NV. “The Enerpac SBL500 gantry, equipped with header beam, powered side shifts and wireless control, gave us the lifting capability and precise positioning we needed for this important project.”

The proton therapy center is scheduled to begin treating patients in the second half of 2019.

Posted on

Ale increases its Mega Jack 300 fleet

The heavy lift and transport specialist Ale has recently expanded its Mega Jack 300 fleet.  Launched in 2018, the system was designed in-house by Ale’s R&D department for a cost-effective solution to jack-up heavy modules on sites where space is restricted or congested in short periods of time. According to Ale, the latest jacking innovation is a compact and versatile system that enables site optimisation and project efficiency, offering a superior solution to traditional climbing jacks, in a wide variety of applications.

This innovation has already been used to jack-up hundreds of pipe rack modules over 5m high in Kuwait.

The system will be delivered to Ale’s UK branch, expanding the global fleet of the group to over 20 towers.

“We are delighted to have this innovative system operating in the UK. We have secured several civil projects where this system is ideally suited; it will demonstrate the system’s strength and capabilities to optimise project schedules,” said Russ Jones, Director-UK.