Demand soars as customers meet bulk commitments

Unit orders received by Liebherr in the first eight months of 2006 totalled 45,compared with 53 for all of 2005. Almost 50% will be supplied in the four-rope configuration used for bulk handling, rather than the two-rope set-up suitable for container attachments. Orders from customers in the UK and Ireland continue to be prominent, but it is Indian terminal operators including Gujarat Adani and Gautam Freight which have featured most heavily this year with five unit orders in total.

A smaller percentage of Gottwald MHCs have traditionally been supplied with grabs, and this has remained the case this year.Of the 58 orders sold through to the end of August, 15 were fourrope grab cranes. However, spokesman Peter Klein insists a simple analysis of the figures fails to capture Gottwald’s success in the bulk market.”Nearly all four-rope grab cranes were from the HMK/HSK 330 EG series and were supplied to dedicated bulk terminals such as Immingham’s HIT 2 project [rather than multi-purpose terminals], a market segment which Gottwald focuses on,”he says.