ONE BRIGHT LIGHT

In Southeast Asia the heavy end is about the only part of the lifting market to survive the current economic climate in reasonable shape. Heavy lifting work in Asia is concentrated in export related industries like oil and gas and these are the last projects to be suspended or cancelled. And when the downturn hit, many of the projects were too near completion to be cancelled.

Geared to lifting work above 150t and heavy cargo transport, Walter Wright Mammoet in Singapore says it has not experienced a slowdown in the volume of work but rates are down about 50%. The company claims to have “the largest heavy lift fleet of cranes in Southeast Asia”. Vice president of operations Neil Birkbeck says that rather than reducing the size of the fleet, it has been consolidated by upgrading the equipment mix. A pair of refurbished 4600 Manitowocs with type 65 booms were recently sold in China. Also from the fleet, a 750t machine was sold through Manitowoc’s dealer in China.

Recent projects include a 630t lift in Malaysia last October for Japanese client Sankyu. Walter Wright Mammoet Malaysia used a Manitowoc M1200R with a 1,000t strut jib to erect a 68m-high, 8m-diameter reactor column at the KR2 aromatics plant. An 800t capacity Demag CC4800 assisted as the tailing crane.

Mammoet has M1200 Ringers working on the TARP refinery project in Thailand and further afield, India has picked up some slack from the rest of Asia. Mammoet has 11 cranes at the Reliance site in Jamnagar, including an M250 Manitowoc and other crawlers between 150t and 800t capacity. The company made two heavy lifts of around 300t with Reliance’s American 11320. Mammoet has three or four major projects coming up about now and Neil Birkbeck feels that “1999 is going to be a challenging and interesting year”.

Arch rival Van Seumeren is very positive about prospects in the region and managing director in Singapore Ton Bakker says that the company is still doing well despite the economic situation. Good business in Malaysia is said to have helped to maintain a constant volume of work but rates are down by up to 30% for rentals above 300t capacity.

Reinforcing its commitment to the region, on 1 November 1998 Van Seumeren Philippines Inc was established and there are also two new joint ventures. One is with Sea & Land in Taiwan to form Sea & Land Van Seumeren Inc and the other is with Romstar in Malaysia to form Van Seumeren Romstar Sdn Bhd. Also in November, the company had 13 cranes in the region. A new Liebherr LR 1250 was on its way and an LR 1450 was under test prior to shipment to Malaysia.

In January Van Seumeren completed a large contract in Kalimantan, Indonesia that ran from May 1998, on the construction of eight liquified natural gas (LNG) units. Van Seumeren carried out the inland transportation and erection work over 20t. For the last seven years Indonesia was the company’s best Asian market for heavy lifting but it is now expected to be very quiet for the next two years at least.

Like Mammoet, Van Seumeren has also been active at the Reliance Petroleum refinery in Jamnagar, India. It carried out 27 lifts of between 500t and 1600t last year over a period of about six months, working in conjunction with SK Taneja who manages Reliance’s heavy lift team of 120 people. His office was responsible for lifting 750 pieces of equipment. The final 25 lifts were completed in December. Tailing cranes were a Demag CC 2600 and a 1,000t American 11320 with Super Sky Horse, both owned by Reliance. Sanghvi Movers’ Demag CC 2400 was also used when the CC 2600 was unavailable.