Africa is one of the fastest-growing markets for global bulk commodity trade, with the annual growth rate of African bulk cargo shipping volume reaching 4.2% in the past five years, far exceeding the global average. However, mismatched with the rapidly growing freight demand is the lagging development of port infrastructure in Africa. According to a report from the African Development Bank, less than 30% of bulk cargo terminals in Africa are equipped with loading and unloading capacity suitable for vessels of 80,000 DWT and above, and more than 60% of terminals still use old fixed loading and unloading equipment that has been in service for more than 15 years. There are four core pain points prevalent across the industry:

1. Insufficient equipment adaptability: Traditional fixed ship loaders can only adapt to a single or a small number of vessel types, unable to cover the full spectrum of vessel types from inland river barges to Panamax vessels. A large number of terminals miss out on large ocean trade orders due to equipment limitations;
2. High infrastructure and time costs: Fixed ship loading lines require large-scale civil engineering works. In most African countries, the infrastructure approval cycle is as long as 6-12 months, with an initial investment of tens of millions of US dollars, which is unaffordable for small and medium-sized terminals;
3. Weak working condition adaptability: Most regions in Africa have high temperature, high humidity, heavy salt spray, and high dust, with unstable power supply in some ports. Standardized equipment from Europe and America has a high failure rate, difficult operation and maintenance, and long downtime;
4. High operating costs: Old equipment has a low degree of automation, requiring a large number of on-site operators, coupled with low loading and unloading efficiency and long vessel detention time. The daily detention fee for a single vessel can reach tens of thousands of US dollars, which seriously erodes corporate profits.

Buchanan Port is the second largest port in Liberia, backed by the core iron ore belt in West Africa. Its annual export demand climbed rapidly from 3 million tons in 2022 to 8 million tons in 2024. However, the original 2 sets of fixed ship loading equipment can only adapt to vessels below 50,000 DWT, with a single vessel operation time of more than 72 hours. Moreover, the equipment has a high failure rate in high temperature and high humidity environments, with a comprehensive availability rate of less than 70%. The port not only cannot undertake ocean-going orders for Panamax vessels, but also bears an additional cost of more than 2 million US dollars per year due to vessel detention issues. At the same time, the port yard has limited space, making it impossible to carry out large-scale civil construction and expansion. The local infrastructure approval process is complicated, which cannot meet the customer's urgent demand for capacity upgrade within 3 months.

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Advantages of ZOOMRY Mobile Ship Loaders

In response to the flexible loading and unloading needs of bulk cargo terminals around the world, ZOOMRY has developed the ZR-SF series radial telescopic stackers and ZRSL series mobile ship loaders. With the core advantages of full-scenario adaptability, full-process controllability, and full-working-condition reliability, they have passed a number of international certifications such as CE, EAC, and KCS, and comply with multinational standards including CEMA, AS, and GB, which can fully meet the compliance requirements of global markets such as Europe, Russia, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

In view of the special working conditions and demands of the African market, different from the model of European and American competitors that focus on standardized products, ZOOMRY's mobile ship loaders can realize full-dimensional customization based on the customer's terminal conditions, material characteristics, vessel type range, and operating environment. The core Conveyor Belt width of the equipment covers 800mm-1600mm, the maximum conveying capacity of a single unit can reach 3500m³/h, the radial telescopic length covers 10-22m, and the maximum operating height can reach 20 meters. It can fully adapt to the full spectrum of vessel types from 1000-ton inland river barges to 80,000-ton Panamax vessels, perfectly solving the pain points of diverse vessel types and insufficient adaptability in African terminals.

In terms of infrastructure construction and commissioning efficiency, ZOOMRY mobile ship loaders adopt a modular pre-assembled design. The whole machine can be disassembled and transported globally in 40HQ containers, and the on-site assembly and commissioning can be completed in only 10-20 days. No large-scale civil engineering is required, and the equipment can be put into production only with a simple hardened ground. The initial investment is reduced by more than 45% compared with traditional fixed ship loading lines. At the same time, it completely avoids the problems of long infrastructure approval cycle and complicated procedures in Africa, and can quickly respond to customers' capacity upgrade needs.

In response to the special working conditions of high temperature, high humidity, heavy salt spray and unstable power supply in Africa, ZOOMRY has made comprehensive localized adaptations for the equipment: the whole machine adopts a heavy anti-corrosion coating system, and the electrical control cabinet reaches IP65 protection level, which can effectively resist the erosion of salt spray, dust and water vapor; the equipment can be optionally equipped with an on-board self-contained diesel generator set, which can realize full-function operation without relying on shore power, perfectly adapting to the current situation of unstable power supply in some parts of Africa; at the same time, the equipment is equipped with three-stage polyurethane cleaning scrapers, a fully enclosed material guide trough and a dust removal system, so that the on-site dust concentration during operation is far lower than the environmental protection standards of various countries, which is in line with the increasingly strict environmental protection regulatory requirements in Africa.

In terms of automation and safety, ZOOMRY mobile ship loaders are equipped with a fully programmable PLC control system and HMI touch screen human-machine interface, supporting three modes: fully automatic PLC operation, remote wireless control, and local manual operation. Operators can complete the whole process of operation through remote control within a range of 300 meters, which greatly reduces the number of on-site operators and labor costs. At the same time, the equipment is equipped with multiple safety protection systems, including belt deviation protection, 0.01 second self-locking hydraulic winch system in case of power failure, double mechanical limit protection for steel wire rope breakage, and emergency pull rope switch, which fully comply with international operation safety standards, and can effectively avoid operational risks caused by insufficient safety training of on-site operators in Africa.

It is worth mentioning that ZOOMRY has a full industrial chain independent production capacity. From the complete conveyor machine to core components such as idlers, pulleys, and cleaning scrapers, all are independently developed and produced. Its own quality inspection center is equipped with more than 60 sets of professional testing equipment. The performance indicators of the products are better than the national standards and CEMA standards. The service life of core components such as idlers and pulleys exceeds 50,000 hours, which can greatly reduce the operation and maintenance costs and spare parts replacement cycle of the equipment. This is also one of the core advantages over European and American competitors.

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Buchanan Port Benchmark Project Implementation Process

In response to the urgent capacity upgrade demand of Buchanan Port, ZOOMRY set up an exclusive project team, completed on-site survey, scheme design and product customization within 15 days, and provided the port with an integrated bulk material loading and unloading solution of "2 sets of ZRSL-65 wheeled mobile ship loaders + 1 set of heavy-duty hopper feeder", which perfectly matches the whole process demand of iron ore loading and unloading in the port.

1. Full vessel type adaptive design: The maximum operating height of the equipment is 14 meters, which can cover the full vessel type operation from 1000-ton barges to 80,000-ton Panamax vessels, completely solving the core pain point that the port cannot undertake ocean-going orders;
2. Ultimate loading and unloading efficiency: The maximum conveying capacity of a single unit reaches 3500tph, and the joint operation of two units can compress the single vessel operation time from 72 hours to less than 24 hours, fully meeting the port's demand for an annual throughput of 8 million tons;
3. Ultra-fast commissioning and production: The equipment adopts a fully modular pre-assembled design. After being shipped to the port by container sea freight, it only took 15 days to complete on-site assembly, commissioning and personnel training, and achieved full-load production within 30 days, far exceeding the customer's construction period requirement of 3 months;
4. Exclusive optimization for West African working conditions: In view of the high temperature, high humidity, heavy salt spray and heavy rainfall in the rainy season in Liberia, the equipment adopts heavy anti-corrosion coating and IP65 fully sealed electric control system, and is equipped with an on-board diesel generator set, which can realize uninterrupted operation when shore power is interrupted;
5. Whole-process operation and maintenance guarantee: ZOOMRY has equipped exclusive resident engineers for the project, and set up a spare parts warehouse in West Africa, which can realize 24-hour fault response and spare parts supply, completely solving the customer's worries about operation and maintenance.

Since its commissioning, the project has been verified by 12 months of full-load operation, and delivered a performance report that far exceeded the customer's expectations. In terms of capacity and efficiency, the port's annual throughput capacity has increased from 3 million tons to 12 million tons, which not only fully meets the existing iron ore export demand, but also adds 3 long-term ocean-going cooperative customers; the average vessel detention time has been shortened by 70%, saving customers more than 2.2 million US dollars in detention fees every year. In terms of cost control, the overall investment of the project is only 55% of that of the fixed ship loading line with the same capacity, no additional civil engineering investment is required, the number of on-site operators is reduced from 12 per shift to 4 per shift, and the loading and unloading cost per ton of goods is reduced by 38%. In terms of equipment reliability, the cumulative operating hours after 12 months of commissioning exceed 8200 hours, the comprehensive equipment availability rate exceeds 95%, there is no major fault shutdown in the extreme environment of high temperature and rainy season in West Africa, and all performance indicators of the equipment remain stable. In terms of environmental protection compliance, the fully enclosed conveying and multi-stage dust removal design of the equipment makes the on-site dust concentration during operation far lower than the limit specified by the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency, and the project has also been rated as the "West African Bulk Terminal Environmental Protection Demonstration Project" by the local port authority.

The successful implementation of the Buchanan Port project has not only verified the reliability and adaptability of ZOOMRY mobile ship loaders under extreme working conditions in Africa, but also provided a replicable, low-cost and high-efficiency capacity upgrade solution for many bulk cargo terminals in Africa facing the same dilemma.

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Why Choose ZOOMRY

For Africa's bulk material industry, ZOOMRY's solution is by no means a single equipment supply, but a reconstruction of the operation logic of bulk cargo terminals from the bottom up. For a long time, the development of bulk cargo terminals in Africa has been bound by a vicious circle of "high infrastructure investment - long return cycle - low operation efficiency". The emergence of ZOOMRY mobile ship loaders allows terminals to achieve rapid capacity upgrade with very low initial investment and extremely short production cycle, without having to bear huge infrastructure risks for long-term trade expectations, which has extremely strong universal value for the African market with a relatively weak economic foundation.

Compared with mainstream European and American competitors, ZOOMRY has three irreplaceable core advantages in the African market: First, the ultimate localized customization capability, which can carry out full-dimensional customization based on the terminal conditions, working conditions, and material characteristics of different African countries, rather than the standardized product output of European and American brands; Second, the full-chain service capability, ZOOMRY can provide full-process services of EPC+M+O (Engineering, Procurement, Construction + Management + Operation), and has set up multiple service outlets and spare parts warehouses in Africa, which can achieve 24-hour rapid response, completely solving the industry pain points of long after-sales cycle and slow spare parts supply of European and American brands; Third, the high cost performance advantage. Under the same performance parameters, the initial investment of ZOOMRY equipment is about 30% lower than that of European and American brands. At the same time, the core components are independently produced, with lower operation and maintenance costs, which is more in line with the budget needs of African customers.

Today, ZOOMRY's bulk material conveying equipment has been widely used in many industries around the world, such as mining, thermal power, cement, ports, chemical industry, etc. In addition to the African market, the products have been exported to more than 20 countries and regions including Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, and South Korea, and have been widely recognized by nearly 200 customers around the world. In the future, ZOOMRY will continue to deeply cultivate the global bulk material conveying market, take technological innovation as the core, and localized service as the support, to provide global customers with more efficient, more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective bulk material conveying solutions, truly practicing the corporate philosophy of "Creating High-Quality Conveying Products, Building a Century-Old Foundation", and growing together with global customers.