Japan-headquartered heavy lifting and transportation specialist Denzai is adding a 2,500-tonne Liebherr crawler crane to its fleet.
The LR 12500-1.0 will be shipped from Liebherr’s plant in Germany in July 2024 and will start operation in October at S-OIL’s Shaheen project in Ulsan, South Korea. After that, Denzai plans to operate it in Japan and overseas, adding that it will be the first company that owns an LR 12500-1.0 in Japan and Asia-Pacific.
“As the amount of electricity generated by offshore wind increases, the height and weight of offshore wind turbines are becoming larger and larger. The construction of even larger offshore wind turbines is expected to become impossible with the 1,350-tonne crawler crane, which is the largest crane we currently own,” said Denzai. “In the round one and round two offshore wind turbine construction projects currently underway in Japan, the weight of the towers will be different from the European specifications, and the Japanese specifications are expected to be even heavier.”
Denzai added that the working radius of the cranes is also expected to be larger than those seen in Europe for these types of projects, due to the fact that some Japanese ports have weaker wharves and cranes must be installed further away.
The company continued: “If the nacelle weight exceeds 800 tonnes, it will be impossible to lift the nacelle at the far side of the vessel with a single 1,350-tonne crane, and we estimate that two 1,350-tonne cranes will be required. On the other hand, the LR 12500 to be introduced this time can lift up to 951 tonnes with a working radius of 48 m, thus satisfying the requirement with only one crane.”
Denzai said this new unit will meet the requirements of the aforementioned round one and two projects, and could be utilised for upcoming floating wind energy projects in future.
