Over the years, Holmwood Highgate has displayed a true commitment to quality tanker manufacturing with a constant dedication to improvement.
It’s this, and its ability to recognise and take advantage of opportunities for innovation, which has allowed the business to successfully develop a wide range of transport products and solutions for several thriving sectors.
Building on this, Holmwood has entered a new joint venture with Sica, a vessel manufacturer based in Argentina, South America, to bring liquified petroleum gas (LPG) tankers to its product lineup.
The decision to look internationally for a partner to expand on its already bustling product lineup is testament to Holmwood’s relentless dedication of giving Australian fleets quality trailers to the best of its ability.
“It diversifies us because over the last 70-odd years we’ve largely been aluminium liquid tanker producers,” says Holmwood Highgate Victoria Managing Director, Mark Stables.
“While we did and still do some mild and stainless steel builds, it was never really our core – aluminium road tankers were. But we have seen the real needs and opportunities of broadening and diversifying our product line.
“We now have the capability of supplying full stainless steel chemical spec road tankers, pneumatic dry bulk tankers, LPG tankers and of course all of the aluminium and mild steel tankers and aviation refuelling vehicles that we’ve always done.”
Holmwood first commenced discussions with Sica in 2019 which at the time was collaborating with CA Muller in South Africa.
In its own operations, Sica Muller, as the joint venture was known, would manufacture the vessels for LPG road tankers and then send them to CA Muller to put them together and ship them to Australia.
Yet, with shipping delays and exorbitant international ocean freight prices due to COVID-19, they all quickly saw that with Holmwood in the mix the arrangement could be much more seamless – the vessels could be built in Argentina by Sica and then shipped straight to Australia where Holmwood would ‘trailerise’ the units locally by installing the suspension, lights, brakes, hydraulics, pneumatics and metering systems itself.
Following a pause due to the pandemic, both businesses officially launched the partnership in 2023. The first jointly manufactured tankers are being delivered to customers now.
“CA Muller still plays a part in some engineering support at this point in time, but essentially, we are completing them locally in Australia,” Mark says. “These tankers are built using low temperature alloy steels rather than quenched and tempered plate, to AS1210 which is our Australian pressure vessel standard, and are delivered here as a fully certified and complete vessel.
“We are procuring all of the local Australian running gear such as suspension, brakes, attachment points, landing legs and all of the electrical work to comply with Australian Design Rules (ADRs) and AS 2809 for Dangerous Goods (DGs).
“So, this partnership employs a fair chunk of our vast experience and expertise in DGs and trailer production for the Australian market while utilising Sica’s enormous capabilities and experience with pressure vessels.”
The first delivery under this business model is a B-double bulk LPG tanker for Supagas. The combination is made up of a 28-cubic-metre lead trailer followed by a 55-cubic-metre end trailer, both with excellent tare weight allowing for a combined payload of 36 tonnes of LPG.
The tankers, Sica Commercial Manager, Esteban Weidmann, explains, are designed per European standards but are also compliant to the applicable Australian pressure equipment standards and road regulations.
“In order to reduce the tare weight of the trailers, they are equipped with a sunshield covering the upper third of the vessels,” he says.
“Under European design rules, this feature allows you to consider a lower design pressure and hence thinner shell wall thickness, given the fact that the vessels develop a substantially lower temperature and derived pressure under operational conditions by not being exposed to direct sunlight.”
Another interesting element of the LPG tanker is its use of European fine grain normalised steel, with high yield properties for the construction of the shells and heads of the vessels.
“LPG tankers have broadly been manufactured out of quenched and tempered (Q&T) steel due to its lighter tare weight, however, its downside has always been a three-year periodic inspection requirement,” Esteban says.
“On the contrary, this EN standard steel grade, although being a high resistance material that enables similarly light designs to the Q&T tankers, does not bear this last condition. Therefore, these tankers benefit with a regular five-year periodic inspection regime resulting in important operational expenditures savings.”
For Sica, this is the first of many joint builds to come in its long-term partnership with Holmwood.
Going forward, its tankers will only be distributed into Australia through Holmwood which will be its official agent for static tanks and oil and gas process equipment product lines. Beyond this, Esteban says there are also further plans underway.
“There are currently many interesting projects under discussion for fleet expansions and modernisations in Australia which leads us to be very optimistic about the future potential of the market that can be developed together,” he says. “The joint venture is also undergoing a product line fine tune design optimisation – taking advantage of Holmwood Highgate’s broad market experience – which are already being offered to customers inquiries.
“The collaboration with Holmwood Highgate has been key in adjusting our product line to local requirement and quality expectations, and smoothly overcoming potential challenges of this new demanding market. Both of our companies share a tailor-made philosophy on our approach to customers, and this will be played to the benefit of the gas transport industry in Australia.”
With the joint venture now in full effect, Mark says the Australian transport industry can look forward to seeing high-quality, lightweight LPG tankers with a fit and finish quality that’s come to be expected from Holmwood.
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