Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co Ltd (ZPMC), the world's leading container crane builder, received orders worth a total of US$2.03B in the first half of this year, up 32% year on the same period of 2007 (US$1.54B).
The information was given by Liu Qizhong, executive director of the company, speaking in Shanghai. He said the figure includes other large steel structures as well as container cranes and bulk handling equipment.
ZPMC currently has around US$7B worth of orders in hand. The company claims that, once it has fully integrated the activities of its former sister company and rival, SPMP Shanghai Port Machinery (see WorldCargo News, May 2008, p1 for background to the takeover), it will have a 100% share of the domestic container crane market and a 78% share of the international market.
This month WorldCargo News will publish its latest snapshot of the ship-to-shore container crane market, with the latest reports from all companies active in this sector, so it may be possible to test ZPMC's market share claim.
Outside the crane market, ZPMC has become more involved in supplying large steel structures for civil engineering projects, such as bridges, and it is also becoming increasingly active in various offshore sectors.
For example, it has just signed a contract worth US$350M with Fluor Ltd to provide more than 110,000t of steel structure for an offshore wind plant in the UK, reportedly bidding 10% lower than its nearest competitor. It is also manufacturing floating cranes valued at more than US$130M for Samsung.
ZPMC has also come up with a new design for a heavy lift floating crane with a 4400t lifting capacity. The hull for the DLV 4400 will be built by an as yet unspecified Chinese yard, although final outfitting and mounting of the aft-mounted revolving crane will be performed at ZPMC's own shipyard at Changxing Island.
The DLV 4400 will be powered by seven MAN Diesel 9L32/40 gensets. The total installed output of 31.5MW will supply propulsion power, power for manoeuvring, for the crane activities, and to the accommodation for 250 persons. |
