Through the windows of their office, CEO Bernard Beyne and managing director/CEO Rik Debaere of Galloo Recycling Group look out over their scrap terminal in Ghent, Belgium with satisfaction. The large, colourful mounds of scrap make for an interesting view from an office, and business is good.
Galloo moves approximately 15,000 to 20,000 tons of scrap through the Ghent terminal every day, making it the fastest operation in the world, according to the company. At the heart of this success story, Galloo says, is the Belgian manufacturer E-Crane.
In November 2009, the first E-Crane was installed at Galloo Recycling Group’s operation in Ghent. The installation of this high-performance E-Crane meant an immediate, rapid and enormous growth in the handling capacity of the export terminal. Galloo says that in part thanks to the installation of their first E-Crane, the company continues to easily handle an ever-increasing amount of scrap and maintain its leadership position in the European ferrous and non-ferrous metal recycling sector. On a European scale, Galloo Recycling Group says they definitely belong at the very top. Its various sites handle more than two million tons of ferrous metal per year – all of which is destined for use in the global steel industry.
Loading time – less than 48 hours
In 2012, at the Galloo Recycling Group site in Ghent, due to the increasing volumes of scrap, management started to consider buying a second E-Crane. Towards the end of 2012, ECrane received the order. Similar to their first unit, Galloo Recycling Group chose a type 2000-series crane.
Galloo says the acquisition of an extra E-Crane resulted in further time-savings, and the flexibility of both E-Cranes meant that scrap could be deposited neatly in 25-metre-high mounds. This also meant that when a handymax ship moors at the Galloo Recycling Group’s wharf in Ghent, loading can begin immediately and can take less than 48 hours.
“With our old cable cranes we couldn’t get into the corners of the holds which made loading and unloading problematic,” explains Debaere. “With the E-Crane, the scrap can be spread out better and we have to do less trimming, which of course saves a lot of time.”
“We had to stick to our guns to convince the local management to purchase another E-Crane,” continues Debaere. “We had after all worked for a long time with hire cranes. I promised a time-savings of 25 percent. I was therefore delighted to discover that we could actually load 50 percent faster than with the old hire cranes.”
Ghent is the port which tranships the most scrap in Belgium. Five years ago, when Galloo was the only scrap exporter in the Port of Ghent, there was a volume of 700,000 tons per year. Currently, of the 1.5 million tons of scrap coming through the port of Ghent, 850,000 tons is handled by Galloo.
At Galloo Recycling Group in Ghent the two type 2000-series E-Crane’s discharge about three vessels per week. Once a month, the two giant cranes work in tandem to load a 30,000 to 40,000 tonne deep-sea vessel.
In total, at all operations, Galloo Recycling Group has eight E-cranes. One of the machines, built in 2003 and used to fill scrap shears, has over 48,000 hours on the metre and is still running well. The oldest of the E-Cranes used by the Galloo Recycling Group is in operation at the site of the company’s headquarters in Menen. Galloo says this sturdy and reliable E-Crane has been used for 25 years, loading scrap into a scrap shredder.
Flemish know-how
In 1998 the first E-Crane arrived on the market. Right from the start, E-Crane says they knocked other cranes out of the number-1 position, largely due to the machine’s balanced arm operation which is ideal for the transhipment of scrap, bulk, coal, gravel and sand. E-Crane remains very active on a global scale, in both small, inland ports as well as larger ports where Panamax vessels of up to 80,000 tons can be loaded. The company has subsidiaries in the Netherlands and the United States, and carries out some 20 crane projects per year.
“Our strength is that we have evolved organically, very gradually and carefully, without growing pains,” says E-Crane managing director Lieven Bauwens. “Our success is based on three fundamentals: flexibility, concerted specialization and the fact that we are at the top of a niche market. It is nice to think that we have achieved it all with Flemish know-how.” In 2012 E-Crane took over the Polish steel construction company Famaba. Since then, steel construction of E-cranes has been carried out in-house.
E-Crane’s logistics optimization and training centre
E-Crane says global sales of their machines result in an average turnover of approximately 20 million euros, and that success of this calibre requires a solid logistic approach.
“During the last two years we have been optimizing our warehouse in Adegem, Belgium. This has even led to a new entity: E-Crane Parts & Services,” says Bauwens. “With our new warehouse platform, we can optimize our after-sales service and we have access worldwide to necessary parts. Furthermore, E-Crane Parts & Services is regulated by a software program which we developed ourselves.”
Besides a new warehouse-platform, E-Crane also has a new training centre. “Our E-Crane Academy allows us to teach new colleagues the tricks of the trade, to keep our people up to date with the latest knowledge and to organize courses for our clients,” says Bauwens.
