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The world’s leading crane spreader company, Stockholm (Sweden) based Bromma Group, has received several new orders for twin-lift and separating twin-lift spreaders on the yard – the continuation of a recent trend toward the specification of high-productivity equipment for yard crane operations. In all, Bromma Group won orders for more than 50 twin-lift yard crane spreaders in January and February 2006, including:
 20 Marathon™ separating twin-lift yard crane spreaders to ZPMC for delivery to Dubai Port, United Arab Emirates
 13 Marathon™ twin-lift yard crane spreaders to APM Terminals for service in Los Angeles in the United States
 10 Marathon™ twin-lift yard crane spreaders to Liebherr Cranes for service in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
 5 Marathon™ twin-lift yard crane spreaders to KONE Cranes for service at California United Terminals in the United States
 3 Marathon™ twin-lift yard crane spreaders to FELS Crane for service at JNPT, India
These orders follow shortly after a 4th quarter of robust order activity for Marathon™ separating twin lift spreaders on the yard. In the 4th quarter of 2005 Bromma received orders for a total of 37 Marathon™separating yard crane spreaders, including:
 9 Marathon™ separating twin spreaders for Aqaba Container Terminal
 9 Marathon™ separating twin spreaders for Salalah Container Terminal
 9 Marathon™ separating twin spreaders to Gujarat Pipavav
 10 Marathon™ YTS45 separating twin lift spreaders to KONE Cranes – 6 for delivery to Malaga and 4 for delivery to Caucedo
Further underscoring this trend is the 2005 order from Modern Terminals, Hong Kong, for 25 Bromma YTS45 spreaders.
Higher Productivity From Ship-To-Shore Driving Demand For Higher Productivity On The Yard.
Customer interest in twin-lift container handling on the yard is connected to the surge in separating twin-lift container handling from ship-to-shore. The Bromma STS45 separating twin-lift ship-to-shore spreader is today Bromma’s best-selling single product. In the first two months of 2006, two container crane OEM firms — ZPMC and SPMP — alone purchased a total of 57 Bromma STS45 separating twin-lift spreaders for delivery to terminals in Dalian, Panama, Yangshan, Saudi Arabia, Nansha, Jamaica, Taicang, Lazaro Cardenas, and Ningbo.
Increasingly, terminals with a commitment to future growth are positioning themselves for such growth by moving to higher-productivity container handling equipment. As Lars Fredin, Vice-President, Sales at Bromma Group notes: “Boosting ship-to-shore productivity by just a small amount – from 25.0 to 25.5 moves per hour, for example – can have a dramatic impact on terminal operating profits, and boosting productivity is, of course, always the starting point for terminal growth strategy. Yet, the bottle-neck in the container handling chain is often the yard operation, not the ship-to-shore operation, and this is one reason why many customers are taking a closer look these days at how twin-lift and separating twin-lift spreaders might push forward their yard operations.”