Paterson Simons has had a full-time presence at Lome Container Terminal (LCT) for the last 8 years. Our contract at LCT officially began on the 1st of February 2015, we set up a full team at LCT in a few short weeks. We currently have a team of 104 strong at LCT. We provide the full maintenance cover for the entire STS and RTG fleet at LCT including the associated spreaders. This is a 24/7/365 operation.
Initially, this was a 2-year contract with LCT, with the expectation that we were going to hand it over to the terminal, after 2 years. Paterson Simons subsequently maintained a full-time presence at LCT for 8 years in all. As West Africa’s market leader in heavy-lifting solutions, it is critical for us to invest in the success and growth of local talent. We set up a Togolese team at LCT and made a conscious decision to invest in and grow the talent of local staff. Knowledge transfer was a big part of our plan in terms of the success of this contract. Given the excellent team, we have built-in Togo, the extensive training provided to them at all levels, and our shared experiences with all our colleagues at LCT over this significant period, it was a difficult decision for us to not re-tender for the new contract, however, a realignment of our regional goals necessitated this important decision.
The equipment at LCT:
Paterson Simons assembled and/or commissioned several cranes at LCT. Below is an overview of the equipment at LCT, showing where we assembled and/or commissioned the equipment:
- 9 Ship to Shore (STS) Cranes
- 9 STS Elevators
- 9 STS Fire suppression systems
- 14 STS Twin-Lift spreader – Commissioned
- 3 OHF Manual Over-height frame
- 2 OHF Automatic Over-height frame
- 22 e-RTG electric Rubber Tyred Gantry cranes – Assembled and commissioned
- 10 h-RTG hybrid Rubber Tyred Gantry cranes – Involved in assembly and commissioning
- 37 RTG Single-Lift spreader – Commissioned
Productivity and reliability:
We are proud of our reliability team and highlighting areas which we have been able to make more efficient for the terminal over the last 8 years, both through our own engineers and terminal input or with the assistance of one of our manufacturers. This coupled with changing preventative maintenance schedules and checklists lead to a high productivity and reduced breakdowns.
A snapshot over the years, of the levels of productivity that we maintained:
RTGs – PPM Compliance: Average of 95,01% and 98,43% Reliability average
STSs – PPM Compliance: Average of 97%, and 96,96% Reliability average
This is noted against a current terminal capacity of 2.2 million TEU.
Paterson Simons provides local agility from start-up terminals to turn-around jobs. The local team training and development are paramount to the success of our work.
We remain in Togo with specialist engineers ready to support all of our products, and as we’ve done from day 1 we have rolling stock engineers on the ground. Our team is able to mobilize local skills on port equipment, including the following: STS, RTG, MHC, and Rolling Stock. Paterson Simons is proud and happy about our journey and accomplishments reached at LCT over the past 8 years, particularly our investment in local talent, training, and development. We are working with LCT to promote a smooth and successful handover. We wish LCT continued success for the future and we stand ever-ready with our local specialist team to help in any way we can. Thank you to the LCT family.
‘We are immensely grateful to our staff for their unwavering dedication and hard work over the past 8 years. Their commitment to excellence has been truly remarkable, and we couldn’t be prouder of all that they have accomplished. Thank you to our team, for your commitment and for making a lasting impact on our organisation and on LCT. In addition, we are especially proud of our significant achievements, namely: higher KPIs through our reliability engineering efforts. Our team has worked tirelessly to implement best practices and continuously improve our systems, resulting in impressive gains in uptime, efficiency, and overall performance. These accomplishments would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff, and we are incredibly grateful for their contributions. It is truly inspiring to see what we can achieve when we work together towards a common goal, and we look forward to continuing this journey of excellence throughout West Africa.’
-James Savoy: Group Technical Director, Paterson Simons
