Method statement loading rock at Kuantan Port

1. Introduction and Purpose

Stema Shipping A/S, part of the Mibau Stema Group (www.mibau-stema.com) has been approached by
one of its loyal Clients to investigate the supply of rock to one of the Client’s project site located in the
South China Sea.

Stema Shipping A/S has since long time built up a good relation with Hanson Malaysia, part of
HeidelbergCement Group, and worked out scenario’s of potential rock export from the Kuantan quarry
located next to Kuantan deep sea port.

Stema Shipping A/S and Hanson Malaysia have now come to the stage to offer the materials and
logistics, providing Kuantan Port Authorities allow the intended loading operations.

Purpose of this document is to provide an initial clarification to all involved Parties allowing for an
assessment from operational and safety perspective.

2. Rock Materials

The investigated project concerns the supply of so called “light rock armour”, defined as LMA60/300kg
according European Standard EN13383.

The materials are well graded with at least 70% of stones having an individual weight between 60kg and
300kg. No stones can have an individual weight of over 450kg.

To provide a good understanding of the materials, the weight of the stones can be indicatively
converted to size (passing through square with side dimensions) as follows: 60kg passes through square
of around 30cm, 300kg passes through square of 50cm, 450kg passes through square of 55cm.

3. Vessel and loading equipment

The anticipated vessel size to export the materials out of Kuantan will be between 40kT and 55kT
deadweight, loaded draft however not exceeding 12m.

Loading of the rock will be done by the vessel’s cranes using a special rock booster grabs having
dimensions as shown in below Figures 1 and 2. The nitrogen booster unit enables the grab to close more
firmly and faster.
As an alternative to the vessel’s cranes, port cranes could be used if available. Using such cranes will
need in all cases to be first assessed by Stema Shipping A/S for approval. Cranes should have a safe
working load of at least 35T at 30m from the quay side.

The empty weight of the booster grab is 16T, allowing for a net capacity of 14T.

The booster grab is electrically driven and power is supplied from the vessel to the grab by a deck tower
having an automatic winding/rewinding system.

Figure 1: Nitrogen Booster grab side view dimensions

Figure 2: Nitrogen Booster grab top view dimensions

Figure 3: booster grab Stema Shipping A/S

4. Delivery and Loading operations

Material will be loaded from Hanson Malaysia’s quarry located approximately 3.5km away from Kuantan
Port and delivered to dedicated quay deck using tipper trucks (back tipping or side tipping).
The quay deck needs to be protected against impact of dumping the materials onto the deck and to be
fenced to ensure no roll over of rock material out from the dedicated dumping area. As rock material
being handled are clean light armour rock in pieces, it is unlikely that there would be risk of
contamination even if it rains.

For protection on deck, there are several options to do so:

➢ Using steel plates (or wood) as protection: this guarantees no damage, however attention
should be paid during loading that the plates do not move/shift due to action of the grab
fingers.
➢ Using a cushion layer of coarse sand or small sized aggregates (no fines content): if put in
sufficient thickness (at least 0.5m) there will be no damage to the quay side. Attention should be
paid during loading sand is not heaped up and maintained flat (equal thickness). Figure 4.

As for fencing, construction of rock loading bin of sufficient size, at least 10x10m per loading area, with
for instance concrete stackable blocks, and having a bottom of steel or wood is proposed. Depending of
how many loading bins are constructed, the vessel would need to be moved to allow the cranes
reaching the bins

Figure 4: cushion layer of sand

 Figure 5: loading bin

The rock material is to be put on one of the above options, always within the safe operational range of
the (vessel) cranes, generally being within 9m from the vessels hull.

In order to optimize the loading speed and efficiency it is advised to have the material put on a small
heap allowing the grab to close “around” the rock material.

Loading is generally performed by 2 (vessel) cranes at the same time. The grabs can swiftly be changed
from one crane to the other when needed (in function of the safe loading plan of the vessel).

It is expected the loading speed of the 60/300kg, using 2 cranes continuously, would be around 8000T
per 24hrs.

Considering the maximum allowable static / dynamic load of quay deck to be 3 tonnes per meter square,
it is recommended to control the material stock (heap) height to be lesser than 1.7 meter assuming the
loose density of rock material to be around 1.5-1.7 tonnes/m3.