Unloading equipment arrives for new Holcim sites

Holcim New Zealand is investing $100 million in new cement storage terminals and distribution facilities in Timaru and Auckland. This significant investment in the supply chain and supply partnerships will ensure Holcim’s customers continue to have uninterrupted access to high quality cement and support for their business operations, says the company.

The construction of the state-of-the-art storage domes at both Timaru and Auckland sites is nearing completion. Each dome is capable of storing 30,000 tonnes of cement.

A major milestone in the project was the arrival and commissioning of the ship unloading equipment for both sites. The state-of-the-art ship unloaders were manufactured by Van Aalst in the Netherlands, took four months to build and weigh around 200 tonnes each.

The equipment was loaded onto the ship MV Happy Dragon at Rotterdam for the six-week voyage via the Panama Canal. After unloading at Timaru the vessel continued onto Auckland to deliver the Auckland cement unloader.

The unloading equipment will be commissioned in Timaru before the first shipment of cement from Japan arrives early this month. The Auckland terminal unloading equipment will be commissioned in the second quarter of 2016.

The Timaru terminal is expected to be fully operational by January 2016 (supplying the South Island and lower North Island). The Auckland terminal is tracking slightly ahead of schedule and is expected to be operating in May/June 2016.

In other Holcim news the Ports of Auckland says that although from mid-2016 Holcim ships will no longer call at the Port of Onehunga, the company will continue to operate a cement bagging facility at the site. The change has come about due to negotiations with Panuku Development Auckland to sell the Port of Onehunga and make it available for public use. The Manukau Harbour is also now considered too shallow for modern shipping and over the past few years Onehunga operations have been consolidating at the main Ports of Auckland facility on the Waitemata Harbour. The construction of a new cement import facility at the Waitemata port, to be completed in 2016, is the final phase in the move of freight operations from Onehunga.