Service -

Dedicated support enables remote ship unloader renovation  

Israel’s largest grain terminal, located in the Mediterranean Sea port of Haifa, is served by a Siwertell ship unloader. When Milenium Silos, part of Milenium Group, won the contract to manage the port’s grain terminal in 2023, it set about undertaking a series of critical maintenance tasks, remotely supported by Bruks Siwertell.

Customer need 

In 2023, the operation of Haifa port’s vast state-owned grain terminal and silo system was contracted to Milenium Silos by the Israel Ports Development and Assets Company (HANI). Milenium Silos is part of Israel’s leading logistics company, Milenium Group. With over 6,700m of quay length, there are several specialized bulk handlers within the port, which was built in 1933. 

The grain terminal handles wheat, milling wheat and seed wheat, maize, corn, barley, rapeseed, sorghum, and soya beans, and is critical to the country’s agri-bulk imports. It has a storage capacity of around 85,000 metric tons, and about 22,000 metric tons of stored grain can be moved from the silo to railcars or trucks each day. At its peak import volume, the silos undergo about 40 cycles a year, and with the exception of religious holidays, the silos operate on a 24-hour-a-day basis.

In addition to other dry bulk handling machinery, the terminal is served by a Siwertell 640 M-type ship unloader. Vessels are discharged and their shipments are transferred via a series of conveyor belts protected by a concrete bridge, to silo storage. The critical nature of the terminal’s dry bulk handling equipment means that good service regimes and the timely replacement of wear parts is essential. 

When an inspection of the unloader, carried out by Bruks Siwertell, showed that it needed to undergo a program of maintenance tasks, including the replacement of wear and strategic parts and a damage assessment, Milenium Silos turned to original equipment manufacturer (OEM), Bruks Siwertell, for assistance.

Our solution

The Siwertell ship unloader was delivered to the port in 2017, and ever since has been operating under a tight schedule, discharging grain and soya beans from vessels up to 80,000 dwt at a rated capacity of 1,200t/h. The usual 24-hour-a-day operation of the terminal means that planned stoppages offer a valuable maintenance resource.

Learning that the terminal was pausing operations for a longer service stop, it was decided that Bruks Siwertell would work closely, but remotely, with a third-party contractor to use the opportunity to carry out a more significant program of critical maintenance on the unloader. 

This included work on the vertical conveyor arm, such as replacing the conveyor casing, transport screws and a new inlet feeder. On the horizontal conveyor, transport screws were also replaced, along with removing and replacing wear plates and casings, where necessary, replacing bearings and the gearbox, with a similar undertaking on the gantry conveyor.

Some damaged areas were also noted on the conveyor supports, but these were able to be scheduled to a later service.

A combination of determination and teamwork over different communication platforms and video calls, along with the use of 3D-modeling, instructions, drawings and various pictures from previous, similar projects, worked together to achieve a timely, turnkey, remote service project. 

The result is an unloader in excellent working condition with no vibrations and running smoothly. Operator feedback notes that it is running so much better than the old screw set.