November 13 - South Korea's Chunjo Construction utilised its 2,300-tonne capacity Manitowoc 31000 crawler crane to construct a petrochemical refinery in Vietnam - the first time Chunjo has used the crane outside its domestic market.
A consortium of Vietnamese and Japanese companies oversaw the plant's construction in Thanh Hoa Province. The crawler lifted xylene columns, the largest of which weighed up to 983 tonnes. It was rigged with 90 m of boom and 964.11 tonnes of counterweight.
Although the Manitowoc 31000 is a large crane, Chunjo sent it to Vietnam because it is comparatively easy to transport in comparison to its class rivals, said the company. The crane's variable position counterweight (VPC) enables it to use less counterweight than cranes offering similar capacities, minimising transportation costs and reducing the need for ground preparation works.
"Though it is a challenge to transport such a large crane to another country, customers still wish to have the 31000 on their job sites because it saves so much money during shipping, ground preparation and erection," Jong Seoung Park, general manager of Manitowoc Cranes in Korea.
At the Vietnamese jobsite, the Manitowoc 31000 was set up with steel mats, as opposed to traditional timber mats, which lowered the ground-bearing pressure from 70 tonnes per sq m to only 30 tonnes per sq m. The crane's compact footprint, enabled by the VPC, allowed it to fit into narrow working quarters to complete the lifts.
Chunjo said the work schedule for the 31000 now extends through the whole of 2016, including the lifting of modules at a South Korean industrial facility. It has also recently been used in South Korea to develop industrial facilities, including the positioning of a 98 m tall tower in a single lift.
