Romanian Shipyard Delivers Black Sea’s Largest Floating Crane To Nibulon

The Romanian shipyard, Santierul Naval Constanta (SNC, Constanta), has built a floating crane for the Nibulon company, one of Ukraine’s largest grain exporters, and delivered the crane to the Ukrainian company on July 26, the press service of Nibulon has announced.

The naming ceremony of the ship took place at the Romanian shipyard. It was named Saint Nicholas. Nibulon’s head Oleksii Vadaturskyi explained that the crane was launched on St. Nicholas Day because St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and travelers. In addition, Vadaturskyi has a six-year-old grandson named Mykola.

According to the announcement, St. Nicholas is the largest and most technologically modern floating transshipment crane in the Black Sea and Mediterranean basins. "It is the best crane in the Mediterranean, Black Sea, and Sea of Azov basins. I believe that it is also the best crane in Europe,” said Vadaturskyi.

According to the announced dates, the crane should already be in Ukraine.

With the help of the crane, Nibulon intends to increase grain transportation on the Dnieper River. "The unique crane will enable Nibulon to load up to 20,000 tons of grain per day, which equals the capacity of the company’s export terminal in Nikolaev," the press service said.

Construction of the floating crane took nine months. The crane was built under the supervision from the Shipping Register of Ukraine, and it will sail under the Ukrainian flag.

The crane was designed by the Ukrainian company Torola Design Group, which has already prepared projects for non-self-propelled vessels and tugs (the NBL-90 and POSS-115 projects) for Nibulon. The crane can be operated in the open seas at wave heights of up to 1.5 meters and a wind force of up to 20 meters per second. About 840 tons of class-A steel was used during the construction of the floating crane and equipment manufactured by Volvo Penta (Sweden), Marine Interior (United States), Schotel (Germany), Heinen & Hopman Engineering (Holland), and about 60 others are installed on the crane. The crane itself was delivered by the Liebherr company (Austria). Its will have a lifting capacity in hook mode of at least 60 tons per lift. The crane will be capable of loading a Panamax-class ship in the roads.

Nibulon now has a fleet of 28 non-self-propelled vessels with a total carrying capacity of 131,080 deadweight tons; four tug boats built under the POSS-115 project and three acquired tugboats (with a total capacity of 11,280 kW); a modern dredger manufactured by Watermaster Classic IV (Finland); the St. Nicholas floating crane. The company plans to build at its own shipyard 12 non-self-propelled vessels with a total carrying capacity of 48,000 deadweight tons (the NBL-91 project), 12 shallow-draft pusher tugs with a total of 360 deadweight tons and a total capacity of 12,000 horsepower (the POSS-120 project), and 35 self-propelled vessels of the type Volga-Don Max with a carrying capacity of 175,000 deadweight tons.

Adapted from cfts.org.ua