KCI Konecranes has won a contract to upgrade a total of eight panamax ship-to-shore cranes in the Port of Felixstowe, UK, and at Patrick Stevedores terminals in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. It has also won a contract from Amco Birtley in the UK to relocate two continuous ship unloaders (CSUs).

The orders were received in late June and have an aggregate value of approximately. Euro 5m.

Port of Felixstowe, part of the global terminal operator Hutchison, ordered the raising of four Morris ship-to-shore cranes. The contract was awarded to Konecranes (UK) Ltd, which will team up with Germany-based Noell Konecranes on this project. Noell Konecranes, part of KCI Koneports, the group’s harbour crane maintenance organisation, will use its own lifting tower set to raise the cranes by three metres. The project is due for completion at the end of December 2003.

Port operator Patrick Stevedores in Australia placed an order to raise two Deer-Park and two Vickers-Hoskins-Paceco ship-to-shore cranes by six metres each at the harbours of Sydney and Melbourne. Konecranes Pty Ltd. from Australia and Noell Konecranes will execute this project together using a second set of lifting towers. The project will be completed in mid March 2004.

“This is a breakthrough for our concept and our own lifting tower solution,” said Gerhard Mickeleit, manager of crane modernisation projects at Noell Konecranes. “This is the first time we have been awarded two similar orders of this magnitude at the same time.” Noell Konecranes.marketing manager Dirk Groth said: “A significant element in winning these orders was Noell Konecranes’ proven design expertise and experience of a wide variety of different crane makes. Applying state of the art in-house structural analysis combined with knowledge of the cranes operating in practise is key in this kind of projects.” The third contract was received from Amco Birtley for the relocation and modernisation of two existing Kone continuous ship unloaders at the Innogy power generation plant in Tilbury, UK. Noell Konecranes and Koneports Scandinavia will co-operate on this project. Both CSUs will be moved over a distance of 30m onto a new jetty using Noell Konecranes’ FLUIDTS heavy lift transportation system. Additionally, new intermediate conveyor belts will be installed on the cranes to feed the existing belt conveyor system on the old jetty and some repairs will be executed on the hydraulic systems of the cranes.