MacGREGOR to supply total cargo handling solution for SE Shipping Lines Pte Ltd including new 450-tonne cranes

Cargotec’s MacGREGOR business area has secured a contract with SE Shipping Lines Pte Ltd of Singapore worth around € 32 million

MacGREGOR will supply a total cargo handling solution that includes hatch covers and company’s new 450-tonne SWL cranes for four firm 25,000 dwt heavy-lift vessels being constructed for SE Shipping at the Wenzhou Zhongou shipyard in China. Delivery of the cargo handling equipment is planned for 2010 and the first ship with new equipment is expected into service at the end of 2010.

“We were looking for an environmentally friendly, cost efficient and reliable solution to transporting project cargo with focus on servicing the wind energy market with our new ships. Working in close co-operation with MacGREGOR already at the early stage will ensure that the cargo handling will be functional and most efficient for our needs and demands”, says Mr. Gaurav Bansal, CEO of SE Shipping Lines.

“We aren’t simply supplying equipment to this customer: we are supplying a total cargo-handling solution. SE Shipping is undergoing an investment programme for its fleet, and as part of it MacGREGOR has spent considerable time working with the customer, with its design consultant, Polarkonsult, and with JKL-Shipbrokers AS of Norway who is acting as brokers for the Owner to develop this concept vessel”, says sales manager Svante Lundberg at MacGREGOR.

“This is an important new contract for MacGREGOR for a number of reasons, including the fact that this is a new customer for us, and that this order will see the first ever reference for MacGREGOR’s new 450-tonne capacity crane,” Lundberg adds.

SE Shipping Lines and Polarkonsult have gone for a new design for heavy lift ships – this will ensure that the vessels have a large degree of flexibility for transporting project cargo specifically for extra length and weight. SE Shipping was incorporated in Singapore in 2007. The company was founded with the aim to bridge the demand and supply gap in the Project cargoes and Heavy Lift shipping industry.

MacGREGOR will supply shipsets comprising foldtite and rolling-type weatherdeck hatch covers, lift-away tweendeck hatch covers and its new 450-tonne capacity GLH deck cranes to the series of four 25,000 dwt heavy-lift ships.

MacGREGOR’s cargo-handling shipset for each vessel comprises:

• Two electro-hydraulic GLH deck cranes, which have a lifting capacity of up to 450 tonnes, a maximum hoisting speed of 36m/min, a luffing time of 150-220 seconds, and a maximum slewing speed of 0.65 rpm

• 14 folding and rolling type hatch cover panels, which are operated by external hydraulic cylinders and are manually cleated and weathertight. Sealing between the hatch cover and coaming is achieved through rubber packing, which is fitted on the panel and tightened against the coaming. The packing is of sliding type, acting directly on the stainless steel mating plate on top of the coaming. Each joint sealing between the rolling panels and the joint between the rolling and foldtite panels is also achieved through rubber packing which is fitted on one panel and tightened against a counter rubber on the other panel. This MacGREGOR Omega-type rubber packing is removed by compressed air before operation of the covers.

• 14 lift-away type hatch cover panels, which are crane-operated and are non- weathertight. The panels can be also be used also as grain bulkheads.

MacGREGOR