Piombino unloading facilities

Among many products, MGM supplied iron ore to the Piombino blast furnace steelworks for years.

For this trade, we regularly imported Panamax-sized ships (approximately 80,000 metric tons) from India with iron ore to Italy.

The ships entered the port of Piombino on large berths, capable of accommodating this type of vessel.

Unloading operations were, at that time, not fully efficient in terms of material loss on the ground and separation capabilities.

Consequently, even though the imported iron ore was widely used, much of the fine fraction of this material fell to the ground or was simply not usable in the blast furnace due to the emissions it would generate.

It was stored and never reused, resulting in a waste of money, resources and space.

Solution:

“We purchased and financed the installation of new loading cranes and conveyors that could fit a smaller quay right next to the larger ones. By doing so, we were able to collect, reload onto smaller ships, and thus reuse the iron ore fines that were left there unused at the steelworks.”

The reloaded iron ore fines were redistributed to other industries such as cement plants as an iron corrector.

The solution quickly became a win-win for all parties involved.

• — It offered the plant the opportunity to use the small quay that was never used.
• — It solved the problem of wasting space, money and resources.
• — It generated revenue for the steelworks.
• — They were able to rent the facilities to load any other type of ship with other materials as well.

Conveyor belts