Palfinger wins Japanese crane contract

Germany’s Palfinger Marine Solutions has won a contract to supply 33 fixed boom cranes for Japan’s first large-scale commercial wind farm off the coast of Tohoku in the country’s northern region. The project actually consists of two wind farms – Akita and Noshiro – and Palfinger’s agreement is with the wind farm construction company, Kajima Corporation.

Palfinger will supply PF8000 cranes for each of 33 wind turbine platforms, with the first units delivered this autumn. Each crane will have a safe working load of one tonne and an outreach of 2.4m. Commercial operations at the offshore facilities are expected to start in 2022/23 and the wind farms will provide 139 MW of electricity when fully operational, sufficient for close to 130,000 homes.

Iavor Markov, Contract and Tender manager for Palfinger’s marine and wind cranes, commented: “We feel very honoured to be part of this project – it truly is a milestone in the Japanese offshore wind industry. Our colleagues from Palfinger Japan played an invaluable role in winning this project: we owe them a great deal of gratitude. Now, we have gained a stronger foothold in this region and discovered even more potential for future projects there.” The deal marks the latest step in Palfinger’s steady Asia-Pacific expansion and is an important move into the Japanese market. Other projects in which the company is involved include Taiwanese offshore wind farms – Formosa 1 Phase 2, Yunlin and Changhua.