Historic transfer system order

Norwegian headquartered TTS Group will supply its largest ship lift and transfer system ordered to date to a Pakistani shipyard.

The contract for the 9000-tonne Syncrolift system for Karachi Shipyard and Engineering Works Limited (KSEW) in Pakistan is worth around 250 million NOK.

Apparently, the contract is also a significant one with respect to Norwegian exports into the Pakistan, being 2.5 times the size of the average annual Norwegian export to the country.

“We see a high interest for our products all over the world. Within a few years, our company has delivered Syncrolift to countries as varied as South Korea, Morocco, Kuwait, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, Brazil and Peru. In addition, we see good opportunities in front of us,” said Rolf-Atle Tomassen, general manager of TTS Syncrolift.

The Syncrolift is essentially a large elevator for lifting ships from sea level to land level. The ship is then moved off the elevator and into a dedicated workstation, by using advanced hydraulic transfer trollies.

A Syncrolift, as opposed to traditional dry docking using graving or floating drydocks, can easily handle ten ships for repair on dry land. A drydock typically handles one ship at a time. Weight is in not really a limitation for our Syncrolift technology. In a recent project, TTS handled weights up to 25000 tonnes.

Mr Tomassen said that TTS Syncrolift's strategy is to follow the customers’ demands which are to minimise docking time, or rather maximise sailing time for ships.

He explained that the Syncrolift and transfer system does this to a certain extent already, but the company’s new business area FastDocking products will further complement this strategy to support customers in reducing delivery time.

“In a period where the shipyards are consolidating and looking for cost effectiveness through volume, our technology complements this strategy. Our own estimate is that ship lift's is the preferred investment choice in more than 60% of all new investments made in docking/launching facilities,” Mr Tomassen added.

The equipment deliveries for KSEW will take place in first half of 2019. Design and development will be carried out in Norway, while manufacturing will be completed in Europe and China.