Huisman held a steel cutting ceremony together with Heerema for the two Heerema 10,000mt Tub Mounted Cranes at their facility in China On Wednesday, 1 July.

These world’s largest cranes will be installed onboard Heerema’s new semi-submersible crane vessel. The steel cutting event signifies a major milestone for the project to proceed to its construction phase to meet the delivery schedule by the end of 2018.

Unlike traditional Tub Cranes which make use of either bogies or large wheels for their slew system, the Huisman cranes will make use of large bearings of own design which are manufactured in-house. One of the largest benefits of a bearing is that this allows for a substantial weight saving of the crane. Especially on semisubmersibles this is an important feature. The slew bearings of these cranes will have a diameter of 30m. The two cranes will each be able to lift 10,000mt at 48m radius in offshore conditions.