Bespoke tailoring
This year Gottwald officially launches its new Crane Generation 5 range, which it says has been designed in response to the specific requirements of terminal operators, stevedoring companies and shipping companies, and are higher, more powerful and faster.
“Generation 5 is a completely new approach in the MHC sector; the new models we are developing offer numerous variants to allow individual, customer-specific solutions,” says Peter Klein.
The concept is based on the fact that clients are only prepared to invest in cranes which are made to suit their own applications – so the customer can select the ideal configuration regarding lift capacity, hoisting speeds and installed engine.
Early references are Porti di Carrara in Italy and P&O Ports in Antwerp, which have each taken delivery of two Generation 5 MHCs.
Carrara has been operating the two largest MHCs in the world since the end of 2005 – Generation 5 Model 8 cranes, with lift capacity of 200 tonnes each.
Liebherr had its second best year ever for MHCs last year, delivering a total of 53. Twenty are due for delivery in spring 2006 and the company is predicting another record year in 2006.
“With overall 2005 orders of more than 70 machines, it is obvious that our brand new production facility in Rostock has to be used to its full capacity in order to meet the evergrowing demand for Liebherr MHCs,” it says.
Looking at the trends, Liebherr says more customers are opting for machines with the highest available lifting capacity and maximum outreach, probably driven by ever-growing vessel sizes. The LHM 500, with maximum lift capacity or 150 tonnes and outreach of 51 metres ‘the most powerful in Liebherr’s range’ attracted six orders in 2004, but this figure jumped to 13 in 2005, putting the LHM 500 in top position for the year.
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