REGIONAL REPORT Ӏ MIDDLE EAST
Arabian Consolidated Trading buys first Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1 in Saudi
Oil and gas remain key drivers of work in the Middle East region and for this work Saudi Arabia-based crane rental fi rm Arabian Consolidated Trading (ACT) has expanded its fl eet with the fi rst Liebherr LTM 1650-8.1 all terrain crane in the country. The new crane will be used as a taxi crane to carry
out rapid work during refi nery shutdowns. "We need a fast crane, a so-called taxi crane,” says Hassan Mohammed Rashid Al-Naimi, founder and president of ACT. “The LTM 1650-8.1 is easy to mobilise. This is important for emergency maintenance work in the refi neries where we only have four hours to set up for shutdown work. The new 700-tonne crane is the best choice here." The company previously reported positive experiences with its predecessor model, the Liebherr LTM 1500-8.1. "The LTM 1500-8.1 is a proven crane within the ACT Group that has also impressed our customers," says Hassan Mohammed Rashid Al-Naimi, founder and president of ACT. The new LTM 1650-8.1, however, outperforms its predecessor by 15 to 50 per cent in terms of load capacity – depending on the equipment.
Handover of the LTM 1650 to ACT (from left to right): Daniel Türkis (Saudi Liebherr Company), Abdullah Al Khaldi, Hassan Mohammed Rashid Al-Naimi (both ACT), Ajanthas Kumarathas and Feridun Karaali (both Saudi Liebherr Company)
"We wanted to have Saudi Arabia's fi rst LTM 1650-8.1,” explains Al-Naimi. “ACT has always been a pioneer and has set standards in the crane business in Saudi Arabia. And we have now done this once again with the new 700-tonne crane." In line with company policy, ACT bought the full equipment package, including two telescopic boom lengths: 54 and 80 metres. To switch
between them only the corresponding telescopic sections must be changed rather than the entire boom. This allows the advantages of both boom variants to be exploited, says Liebherr. The 80-metre boom offers large hoist heights and radii, making ACT's new 700-tonne crane suitable for jobs that fall between the capabilities of the LTM 1500-8.1 and the LTM 11200-9.1. The 54 metre telescopic boom offers advantages in terms of mobility, allowing the crane to travel on the road with the front supports and a 12-tonne axle load. To minimise the set-up time the rear supports are installed as complete support boxes in a single hoist and connected using quick couplings. ACT operates 238 cranes, 180 of which were manufactured by Liebherr – which it has been buying since 1987. Headquartered in Jubail, the company has offi ces in Dubai, Riyadh, Dammam and Yanbu and employs a total of 1,000 people. The company's focus is on crane rental and operations in refi nery maintenance and decommissioning.
with a 52 metre boom, and a 100 tonne capacity Demag AC100-4L all terrain, with a 50.4 metre boom. The gates are installed on top of a bridge connecting the expo site to the access roads. The lift involved the two cranes working in tandem to execute a tailing lift from roads ten metres below either side of the bridge on which the gate was erected. Sreethu Thulassdharan, lead
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engineer for the project, explains how Johnson Arabia’s team of engineers addressed the jobsite challenges: “The gates, weighing 1.95 tonnes and 3.9 tonnes, needed to be lifted over the bridge without full operator visibility, so
20 CRANES TODAY
each crane was positioned and operated carefully on either side below the bridge and our riggers and operator relied on radio communication for both lifting accuracy and avoiding damage to the carbon fibre structure. An initial risk assessment of the
jobsite revealed that the roads were not wide enough for the crane outriggers so we made provisions to spread the outrigger load on curb stones. We applied a safety margin of 25% for the tandem and tailing lifts and we used two spreader bars to stabilise the loads. There were no risks for offloading as we had enough open space below the bridge. “This project was a milestone
for Johnson Arabia because not only did it require careful planning but it also required great communication, skill and coordination for the entire team to be able to lift all the three carbon fibre gates.”
WASTE TO ENERGY PLANTS A key government initiative in the UAE over recent years has been to increase the amount of energy it produces from clean energy and reduce the amount of landfill it produces.
One of the world’s largest waste
to energy plants has been built at Al Warsan 2 at a cost of AED 2 billion. On completion it will process 1.9 million tonnes of
f
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