Transhipment Services Australia Orders Damen Crane Barge

Transhipment Services Australia (TSA) has ordered a transshipment crane barge from shipbuilding group Damen, who says it will be able to deliver the new the Crane Barge 6324 directly from stock to fulfil the order in a period of only four weeks.

TSA has been contracted by Metro Mining to provide transshipment services for its Bauxite Hills Project located along the Skardon River on Cape York Peninsula, north of Weipa in Far North Queensland. With a presence in three sites across Australia, TSA will operate the floating crane barge and has a fleet of five tugs and six dumb barges that have been successfully transhipping for Metro for four years. The company has also operated Damen tugs and Shoalbusters in the past.

Metro Mining Limited has earmarked an expansion strategy to ultimately achieve an annual production of 6 million tonnes. A key element of this was for Metro to have the capability to load Capesize vessels. Converting to larger Capesize vessels will reduce the unit freight rates. At 63 x 24 meters, the Damen Crane Barge is equipped with a grab with a 15 cubic meter capacity and TSA is expecting to load at a rate of 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes per day. 

Once the client- and class requirements are completed, the new crane barge will be transported from Shanghai to Australia by an oceangoing tug by one of TSA’s contractors. TSA’s new barge is expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Sjoerd de Bruin, Damen Sales Manager Asia Pacific, responsible for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, said, “We are delighted that we could make this happen and very quickly, in just four weeks from the initial client enquiry to delivery into Australia. Not only are we partly customizing the barge during this time, we have also arranged the finance through our Customer Finance Department.”

de Bruin explained, “Damen was keen to make every effort to support TSA. If we had gone to the external financing options the lead time could take up to sixteen weeks given the summer holiday period, therefore our Customer Finance Department stepped in.

“All the different Damen departments worked together to support our client - Design & Proposal, Finance, Legal and all of our colleagues in Yichang, China. And given the financial arrangements, our Board also had to approve the deal. It is an impressive team effort.”

Joint owner of TSA, Darren Hedley, said, “Our previous experience with Damen vessels has always been rewarding and we are all very excited to welcome this new vessel into the fleet and to commence loading Capesize ships in October of this year.”

Damen is also offering an extended warranty to TSA and support from the Damen Brisbane Service Hub. On the day of the vessel’s arrival, a Service Engineer will be present and support TSA with all the documentation and paperwork, carry out the technical handover and provide maintenance training.