Steel Bros finds export markets

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 25

Steel Bros finds export markets

Specialist container handling equipment for road transport operators need not be overly expensive or sophisticated, according to a New Zealand road transport engineering firm that is discovering a growing international market for its container trailer-loader. The company is Steel Bros (N.Z.), Ltd, of Christchurch, and its product is the Sidelifter, a container handling semi-trailer-loader that is proving to be highly competitive on the world market as an acceptable answer for vertical and horizontal movements of ISO containers. Mr Sid Cox, the company's export marketing manager, said that the sidelifting concept was first developed in Europe primarily for container handling. But high production costs and unnecessary sophistication has put the equipment beyond the reach of road transport operators in most countries. "It is now a fact that containerisation has spread to even the smallest ports and inland centres everywhere in the world,” Mr Cox said. “At all these points there is a growing demand for a simple and cost-effec-tive method of handling and moving containers. “To economically shift a 20-foot container weighing 20 tonnes' is not a simple matter. Practically all mechanical methods currently in use involve elaborate equipment; high associated costs, require heavy duty paving, skilled opera-

tors and complex repair facilities. "These are precisely the factors that to date have precluded many carrying firms from attaining full container handling efficiency, or from even committing capital to this type of equipment at all.” Mr Cox cited an example of a major manufacturing company that for many years unstuffed containers in its yard while the containers sat on road trailers. "It was grossly inefficient. The process took three times as long as it should have and required a large, expensive forklift truck. Damages were commonplace because the driver could not see what he was doing. “Furthermore the cartage company lost the use of its trailers while they sat in the yard. "When the transport company introduced a Sidelifter to the fleet, the client paid extra to have the containers put on the ground, but in doing so it cut the unstuffing time by two-thirds and practically eliminated breakages. “The transport operator benefited by increasing his fleet utilisation almost 40 per cent, cutting fuel and running costs, and increasing income through the extra handling convenience and charges. “Both parties profited because the carrier had the right;'tool to do. the job quickly arid efficiently,’’ Mr Cox said. - ’ / . ‘