KenzFigee has been awarded a contract by Spliethoff for the delivery of two custom pipe handling gantry cranes for their two new build multipurpose DP2 B-type vessels. The ships are currently under construction at the Mawei Shipyard.

The two pipe handling gantry cranes are designed to move pipes from a pipe handling platform to a position in the cargo hold and vice versa and specially developed in close collaboration with Spliethoff.

‘The cranes are driven electrically and include a specially designed anti-sway and semi-automatic movement system enabling the crane to operate unmanned in the cargo hold to further enhance safety and production, especially during offshore operations,’ KenzFigee states.

The cranes will each have a safe working load of 140 tonnes, a width of 19.18 metres and a weight of 168 tonnes. The length of the cranes are adjustable for handling pipe sections of 12.5, 18 and 25 metres and can be configured to handle multiple pipes.

KenzFigee will build, assemble and test the cranes at their premises in Zaandam, whereafter they will be disassembled into transportable parts and shipped to the Mawei Shipyard for installation on the B-type vessels in the course of the 1st quarter in 2021.

‘Our state-of-the-art DP2 B-type vessels are ideal for supplying large volumes and heavy cargo directly offshore and with the customized pipe handling gantry cranes, we will able to safely and efficiently load and discharge pipes, both on and offshore,’ says Arne Hubregtse, Executive Board member of Spliethoff.

This article first appeared on Project Cargo Journal, a brand of SWZ|Maritime’s publishing partner Promedia.