The vessel shown is the Casta Diva, a 178,000DWT bulk carrier, as she berths alongside Prodeco’s latest direct-loading facility. Prodeco is part of the international mining corporation Glencore Xstrata.

A total of 26 QCN 1600 Cone Fender systems and 33 QPA 500 × 3000 Arch Fenders were installed.

Images and video are used with the kind permission of Guille Rodriguez.

Northport is one of the principal sections of Klang Port, Malaysia. As part of its development programme, an order was placed at the end of 2012 for QuayQuip QCN 1150 Cone Fender systems. The systems, including UHMW-PE faced panels 1.9m wide by 5.5m high, plus chains and fixings, were delivered in April 2013.

Northport’s history can be traced back to when it opened near the mouth of the River Klang over 110 years ago. Port Klang grew rapidly throughout the 20th century to become Malaysia’s principal doorway to maritime commerce. More than 60% of the nation’s trade now passes through the port, which has a container handling capacity of around 4.9 million TEU and receives vessels up to 120,000 tonne displacement.

Northport is the latest of many ports in the region to be fitted with QuayQuip fenders. We expect to announce more orders in  the near future.

If you are working on a project in Malaysia or neighbouring countries, please contact QuayQuip’s regional representative to see how we can help you.

The image gallery shows the new fenders receiving a 5th generation Post-Panamax vessel. Keen-eyed readers will notice that some chains are still in place from earlier fender systems. Please visit the blog again soon to see photos taken after the post-installation cleanup.

Late in 2012, QuayQuip supplied fender systems to the port of Mersin, on the western coast of the Turkish region of Çukurova. There has been an important port in the vicinity for many centuries; Mersin remains a major Turkish maritime centre.

Part of an upgrade to the Nato Pier within the larger port, the original order called for 10 sets of QuayQuip QCN600 Cone fenders, anchors and 1250mm square panels with UHMW-PE facings. Another two systems were later added to the order.

QuayQuip has become an active partner in port and harbour installations across Turkey. To find out more from the regional representive please click here.

Late in 2012, the Port of Tauranga in New Zealand took delivery of QuayQuip fender and mooring systems for the second Sulphur Point Wharf extension.

Sheltered by Matakana Island and Mount Maunganui, the Port of Tauranga is the only all-weather natural harbour between Auckland and Wellington. It handles more tonnage than any other port in New Zealand and is part of a developing regional port network. The Sulphur Wharf extension will allow the container port to receive Post-Panamax vessels up to 105,000 DWT.

QuayQuip designed three kinds of fender system for the project. Thirty sets of twin QCN 700 Cone Fender systems had to be closely aligned to the jetty’s existing cantilever piling. The panels were 1.1m wide by 4.1m high.

The end of the jetty would be protected from midships impacts by a QME Element Fender system, positioned to continue the berthing line beyond the cone fender systems. On a dolphin at the end of the jetty, two QCN 350 Cone Fender systems created a small craft berth.

QuayQuip supplied sixteen 150 tonne (1500kN) T-Head bollards. Eight pieces of a new flush-mounted storm bollard design were fitted further back on the jetty, also rated to 150 tonnes each. Storm lines are dropped directly into these bollards, which have no projecting parts. The reduction in obstructions along the berth during poor weather will enhance shore crew safety. A three-line quick release mooring hook was also supplied.

For more information about the fender systems supplied, as well as the T-head and storm bollards, please contact your local QuayQuip office.

Last year, the historic South African naval base of Simon’s Town took delivery of fourteen sets of QuayQuip QWF wheel fenders: twelve for the drydock and one at each corner of a ship syncrolift.

Later in the year, another two QuayQuip wheel fenders were installed at the newly constructed Damen Shipyards Sharjah FZE in the United Arab Emirates, where they protect vessels approaching the shipyard’s syncrolift. Another 42 units of 3m diameter are on their way to a port development in Belgium, plus a further six of 1.1m diameter further inland.

In 2013, QuayQuip will supply the Panama Canal Expansion with the latest generation of wheel fenders to safely guide vessels past the Canal’s approach structures. Until now the design of wheel fenders had changed little since the first installations in the early 1960s. QuayQuip have significantly improved on the conventional design, making it compliant with the latest PIANC recommendations, substantially reducing hull pressures to 200kPa, absorbing more energy than ever, and with the ability to cope with ship flare angles.

QuayQuip News will publish more about these stories later in the year, along with announcements of new QWF Wheel Fender orders.

For more information please contact your nearest QuayQuip office.

Please click here to contact QuayQuip’s representative in the region.

QuayQuip QCL Cell Fenders are hard at work protecting the new Muelle de Carbon (coal port) at Isla Riesco in southern Chile.

Part of a $530 million mining development project aimed at bolstering Chile’s independence from energy imports, the $50 million port at Isla Riesco will ship up to six million tonnes of coal every year from three new mines.

Isla Riesco lies west of Chile’s Brunswick Peninsula, between Skyring Sound and Otway Sound. A mountainous, heavily glaciated island overlooking the Strait of Magellan, it has a sparse population.

QuayQuip were asked to supply four Cell Fender systems to receive coal carriers up to 140,000t. The systems have been installed onto a concrete and pile dolphin structure. Compact ‘crossover’ shear chains lower the footprint of each system and protect vital chain components from non-standard impacts.

Four complete fender systems were delivered in the Summer of 2012. QuayQuip’s design included large QCL 2000 Cell Fender units behind panels 2.3m wide by 5.5m high.

Coal shipments are expected to commence during 2013 and will continue for several decades.

Customers in Latin America can contact QuayQuip’s regional representative by clicking here.

Although our last report about Barrow Island, West Australia, was some time ago, work at the LNG facility has continued apace.

The site’s latest QuayQuip fender installation serves vessels calling at the Materials Offloading Facility (MOF). Due to the wide range of impact conditions – the berth serves a variety of heavy lift ships approaching either stern- or side-on – a slightly unconventional dual QCN Cone fender design was called for.

The upper fender units in each system are QCN 1100 Cones, mounted to the berth’s concrete deck. The lower cones, QCN 900 units, are attached via a custom-designed connection to the tubular piles (‘king piles’ in Australia) of the supporting combi-wall structure. The panels are 2.9m wide by 5.8m high.

For more details about this and other projects in West Australia, please contact our Australian office.

QuayQuip has carried on its earlier successes in Equatorial Guinea by delivering another three orders in 2012, with a total value of €721,000.

Downstream of Cogo on the Río Muni estuary, Akoniki Wharf took delivery in January 2012 of eight sets of QCN 1300 Cone fender systems fitted with panels 3.7m high by 2.3m wide, and six QPA 800×3000L Arch fenders.

A month later, twenty-seven sets of QPF 2500×4000 Pneumatic fenders were installed at the container quay in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea on Bioko Island.

Militar Port, also in Malabo, received a mixed order during the summer. Fifteen QPF 2000×3500 pneumatic fenders were installed, along with four QPA 500×2000L Arch fenders, 23 T-head bollards rated at 100 tonnes, and all accessories.

Previous deliveries to the country began with seventeen sets of QPF pneumatic fenders in 2010 for the port of Malabo. Orders completed in 2011 included fixed fenders including QCN Cone fender systems and QSA arch fenders to the Porte Petrolier of Bata, and 37 sets of QPF Pneumatic fenders to the main port of Bata.

QuayQuip have a strong track record in Africa. Notable projects include fender systems for the Moma Sands mining project on the coast of Mozambique, a 260m long floating ore trans-shipment at Marampa in Sierra Leone, and all the fendering for the recent updates to Simon’s Town naval base in South Africa. More projects are under way in Africa and will be reported here soon.

Images are courtesy of Etermar.

When QuayQuip’s design engineers were asked to create Cone Fender systems for Berth 7 at Geraldton, West Australia, they were faced with an interesting challenge.

Berth 7 would be fitted with Cavotec mooring systems. The gap between units along the quay front was too cramped for conventional chain and anchor designs. The concrete shell design of the quay also meant that the ‘cone’ of shear forces must be begin far back into the finished structure: something that even the best conventional anchor systems could not achieve. A novel design was called for.

QuayQuip engineers chose a very compact ‘crossover’ chain design that would lower the QCN 1600 system’s footprint along the quay face. The anchor design was a more complex proposition. Rigorous calculations showed that a sophisticated, custom anchoring array could transfer loads to a safe distance behind the quay shell. The illustration below shows the shell prior to filling with concrete, and how the anchor array projects back into the structure to safely transfer shear forces.

Six systems were delivered earlier this year along with four 80 tonne T-Head bollards. The QuayQuip and Cavotec systems have worked perfectly together.

The project consultants were AECOM.

QuayQuip has supplied 90 sets of QCN Cone Fenders and 39 cast steel, 100 tonne capacity T-Head Bollards to Manila North Harbor.

Manila North Harbour is the largest domestic cargo and passenger port in the Philippines. Its owners have invested PHP570 million (GB£8.6m or US$13.8m) to bring the entire facility up to date. The first phase of the project nearly trebled the port’s container capacity to 2.8 million TEU. The port’s passenger terminal is also seeing a major upgrade.

QuayQuip have delivered several orders to the Philippines during the last year, including a set of T-Head Bollards to the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT). More are in progress: we will announce them here in due course.

The photograph was taken during the final stages of construction – we hope to show you an image from the finished port very soon. Customers in the Philippines can get in touch with the local QuayQuip representative, Rolando Espiritu, by clicking here.