This represents the same figure as could be carried by about 46 thousand railcars or 100 thousand trucks.
The crane’s main goal is to complete the loading of PANAMAX vessels. These works are performed in three stages: preparatory works (passage, mooring, cargo hold opening, and others), loading and final works (cargo hold closing, unmooring, draft-survey, etc.).
As of the middle of April, the floating crane proved its effectiveness. During three marketing years of operation, the floating crane completed the loading of more than 3 million tons of wheat, barley, corn, rapeseed, and other crops.
St. Mykolai is one of the most productive transshipment floating cranes in Ukraine. It can substitute up to 10 standard vessels operating on the domestic market. The daily theoretical capacity of such a crane is up to 20 thousand tons which is equal the total capacity of NIBULON’s main grain terminal in Mykolayiv.
Currently, St. Mykolai is not the only one in NIBULON’s shipping company.
At the beginning of 2016, Nibulonivets non-self-propelled floating crane started to complete the loading of high-capacity marine vessels and to enlarge batches of non-self-propelled vessels in order to load them to the full shipload, performing auxiliary operations at the same time (cargo stowing).
STOVE CALEDONIA MV (Panamax type) under the Norwegian flag was the first vessel loaded by Nibulonivets.
During the first weeks of operation, the crane completed the loading of almost 35 thousand tons of Ukrainian agricultural commodities. The vessel’s net loading productivity is 200 tons per hour that equals almost half of the St. Mykolai capacity.
Thus, NIBULON continues developing its program to revive transport waterways in Ukraine, constructing its own fleet, elevators, transshipment terminals, and increasing water transportation volumes.
In the 2015/2016 navigation period, the company has already transported about 1.4 million tons of grain by inland waterways. Upon completion of the project implementation, this figure will reach 3 million tons.
In addition, the workload plan of NIBULON shipbuilding and repair yard for 2016-2018 includes the implementation of a number of shipbuilding projects, namely pusher tugs of modernized 121M project, multipurpose seagoing tugs of 3,500 and 5,000 hp, self-propelled floating crane (similar to St. Mykolai), and non-self-propelled vessels of the NBL-91, В2000 and 90М projects.