In February 2005 BMH Marine, the world leading supplier of continuous screw-type ship unloaders, secured a contract for the delivery of a new high capacity Siwertell ship unloader for cement. The new unloader has inherited its structural design from the Siwertell heavy duty unloaders and its conveying system from the former cement unloaders but with screw conveyors of a larger size. The well proven unloader of model Siwertell ST 640-D will now for the first time be used for high capacity cement unloading at a marine import terminal. The customer is The Houston Cement Company, L.P. located in Houston Texas, USA.
The efficiency of the new unloader is further improved in comparison with the 800 tph unit, and additional features originally developed for the 800tph unit are also available for the new unloader series ST 640-D. As a part of the new contract, BMH Marine guarantees an hourly rated unloading capacity of 1500tph and a through-the-ship capacity of 1050tph for the rail-mounted unloader.
One of the reasons to invest in high unloading capacity combined with high efficiency is the high freight rates. With the high capacity and efficiency of the new Siwertell unloader the customer almost reduces the ship costs in port by 50 per cent compared with an 800tph unloading system. As a result the reduced berth occupancy will allow other activities on the dock. The new Siwertell cement unloader will be delivered in February 2006 and is scheduled to be in commercial operation at the mid of the year.
