Ridley Terminals Inc. took possession of their new Stacker/Reclaimer last week, worth over $24 million.
The machine will increase the efficiency of the terminal operations, with a stacking rate of 8,000 tonnes per hour and reclaim rate of 6,000 tonnes per hour. Combined with the expansion of other areas in the terminal, the stacker/reclaimer will increase annual throughput capacity at Ridley Terminals to 25 million metric tonnes per year by 2015.
The stacker/reclaimer was designed by Sandvik in Austria and built in Jiang Su province, China. It weighs approximately 1,500 metric tonnes, is more than 140 meters long and over 30 meters tall. The machine is approximately the length of 1.5 football fields.
The stacker/reclaimer arrived in five pieces aboard the HHL Macau, after a three week trans-Pacific journey. It was unloaded from the ship using local longshore labour managed by Western Stevedoring.
A local firm, Wainwright Marine Service, has been contracted for barge and marine logistics. Mammoet Heavy Lift and Gat Leedm Trucking also assisted in moving the stacker/reclaimer from the HHL Macao to the
stockyard.
Progressive Steel and Magnum Road Builders have been preparing the site on Ridley Island for the arrival of this massive machine. LNS Services has been contracted for the assembly of the machine, which will take approximately three months.
The stacker/reclaimer was ordered in 2011. The entire process of design, fabrication, delivery, installation, and commissioning will be 24 months.
This stacker/reclaimer at Ridley Terminals will be the eighth stacker/reclaimer in export coal handling service on the west coast of North America.