OREANDA-NEWS. October 01, 2010. It took 4 hours to discharge autoclave for iron ore (weight - 176 tonnes, length - 25m, dia - 5m) from vessel onto a special railway platform.

Two mobile Gottwald cranes with lifting capacity 100 tonnes each performed loading-discharging operations simultaneously. 4 strops with the lifting capacity 70 tonnes each and 2 shackles with the lifting capacity 85 tonnes each were used for loading the autoclave.

At the first stage 176-tonne autoclave was discharged from the ship's hold on berth and prepared for loading onto a special railway platform, i.e. securing elements were removed as a result the weight of cargo was reduced to 169.4 tonnes.

At the second stage it was loaded onto special rotators to turn it through 90°. During the last stage the autoclave was loaded onto a special railway platform. In the closest time this autoclave for iron ore will be delivered to one of the Far-Eastern ore mining enterprises.

According to Dmitry Barandich, Chief Technology Officer of CPV, loading of such a heavy-lift is unique for the Far-Eastern ports. As a rule floating cranes are used for handling super heavy-lift cargoes which makes stevedoring works rather expensive. Whereas CPV is capable of handling cargoes up to 200 tonnes by portal and mobile cranes which results in cheaper and more efficient handling. Dmitry stressed the fact that at present no Far-Eastern port can offer such services as Commercial Port of Vladivostok.