However, not all manufacturers agree. Michael Ibarth, marketing director with German materials handling specialist Sennebogen Maschinenfabrik, confirms that this grab manufacturer has actually reduced the complexity of its systems.
Says Mr Ibarth: “But our competitors seem to put more advanced features such as electronics inside. This is something we don’t like to do as a lot of operators in the ports in the countries we do business with may not be trained or as educated as those [that use our products] in Europe.”
This strate, he says, is “really paying-off”.
“We recently completed a project in Angola, Africa, and the basic reason the customer purchased our systems was because of that feature, because we have reduced the complexity of our machines.”
In addition to Shoreham and Angola contracts, Sennebogen has delivered two large hydraulic machines to the Port of Murmansk, Russia for handling coal.