Konecranes wins 24-unit US order

Finnish company Konecranes has been awarded a landmark order for 24 steel mill cranes by Chinese group Tianjin Pipe (Group) Corporation (TPCO) for its new TPCO America seamless steel pipe manufacturing facility near Gregory in Texas, USA.

The industrial and port crane manufacturer will supply seven custom engineered cranes, including two hot metal ladle cranes, a tundish (funnel used in steel making) crane, two magnet scrap handling cranes and two magnet billet cranes to the melt shop, ranging in capacity from 40 to 180 tonnes. A further two smaller CXT maintenance cranes will also be supplied to the melt shop.

The rolling mill will include 10 cranes ranging in capacity from 20 to 50 tonnes. The cranes will be used for pipe and billet handling and for mill maintenance.

Konecranes will also supply three 25 tonne pipe handling cranes to the finishing mill. The cranes will be used in pipe finishing and threading operations. At the end of this process, two 30 tonne semi-gantry magnet cranes will store finished pipe in the yard and load it into railcars.

The order represents one of the largest crane orders ever received in the USA. Delivery is scheduled from October 2013, with the cranes expected to be operational by April 2014. The order has been booked into Konecranes’ third quarter 2012 order intake.

The US$ 1 billion TPCO America manufacturing facility represents the largest single investment by a Chinese company in a US manufacturing facility.