HIT SrL
01 April 2008
HIT SrL, in Italy, refurbishes rubber tyred gantry (RTG), ship to shore (STS) and other port cranes. Paolo Soncini says most refurbishments are carried out on cranes manufactured between 1970 and 1990. Typically, this includes upgrading the electronic systems in the operator's cabin. “Sometimes it must be fully sandblasted and re-painted but the owner usually likes doing that with a local company.” As with similar companies, the work can be more structural, for example, the company's last job, which was to repair a 70 m long boom that had collapsed.
“The old types of crane use big quantities of steel compared with modern structures. But old cranes could offer a long residual life due to this excess of steel.” He added that refurbishing the electronics on a STS crane could be done for between 𔘈 1 million and 𔘈 2 million, bringing new life to an old crane that originally cost between 𔘈 5 million and 𔘈 7 million.