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Gold Bridge of Hong Kong is about to turn itself into a major player in southwestern China’s chemicals business: the company is a subsidiary of BLT, which operates the largest liquid chemicals fleet in Asia Pacific and the third largest in the world, but it now recognizes that tank farms are an important link in the logistical chain of liquid chemical products. Seeking to serve chemical trading and other chemical shipping companies, Gold Bridge is taking a pioneering step in building a major new tank farm on the extreme south-west coast of China, at the Port of Fangcheng in Guangxi Province near the Vietnamese border. This is an area expected to develop highly active in the chemicals business.

Developed under a joint venture project named Richesse Logistics (Fangcheng Port) Co. Ltd., the tank farm will have design capacity of close to one million cubic meters and comprise 74 tanks for the storage of mostly chemical and petrochemical products. The tanks will be available for lease, as well as serving Gold Bridge’s own storage needs. The farm will not only be the largest liquid chemicals storage facility in southwestern China, in terms of both capacity and the number of media carried, but it will also be the most modern and efficient operation in that part of China, as pointed out by Joint Venture Project Manager Leonard Ma. He says, “A key feature of our business plan is high-quality operations, and that is why we want to spend more on better-quality storage tanks.”

Mr. Ma goes on to explain that their search for high quality brought them to Outokumpu, to develop the project with Outokumpu duplex plate and capabilities. The result was an optimized tank design through joint efforts and in cooperation with their design institute – such an institute is a customary partner in any engineering project in China. The new tanks will be unique in China in terms of both grades and dimensions, marking a remarkable shift from convention very strongly geared towards grades and dimensions available from domestic suppliers as well as towards tried and tested standard designs.

To develop a new and optimized storage tank design, Outokumpu helped the customer find advantages from Outokumpu duplex stainless steel plate, both quarto and coil process (CPP). Replacing conventional, austenitic tank materials with duplex LDX 2101® and 2304, the customer could make the most of the duplex properties of high strength – almost double that of austenitic grades – and good corrosion resistance. Importantly, Outokumpu’s 2-meter-wide coil and capabilities to custom-size plate dimensions, helped the customer minimize welding requirements both vertically and longitudinally. By replacing the standard market product, 1800mm x 6000mm sheets, with 2000mm x 10400mm sheets from Outokumpu, the customer was able to improve the design vastly, while the product still allowed for easy shipment as well as fabrication and erection on site.

Mark Basford, Outokumpu’s Regional Sales and Marketing Manager in Hong Kong, comments on the project and its progress: “In the course of the discussions, it became increasingly evident that the customer and their design institute were comfortable placing their trust in us. Our regional technical and sales specialists Chang Ching Sun and Philip Lim helped them understand better and better the total benefit in the long term and grasp the advantages of the optimized Outokumpu duplex concept including savings on many fronts – in materials, welding, handling and, subsequently, in cost. They realized that they could obtain all this while still maintaining their initial technical requirements.”

Project
Liquid storage tank farm at the Port of Fangcheng in Guangxi Province in southwestern China, built in two phases: Phase 1 to comprise 32 tanks with total design capacity of 310,000 m3, Phase 2 to comprise 42 tanks, with total design capacity of more than 500,000 m3. Intended for the storage of a wide range of chemical and petrochemical products. Phase 1 scheduled for completion in 2009.

Owner and operator
Richesse Logistics (Fangcheng Port) Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Richesse Logistics (International) Limited, wholly owned by Gold Bridge, and the Fangcheng Port Group Company Limited of China

Tank materials
Approximately 560 tons of Outokumpu’s duplex quarto plate and CPP
Dimensions: Quarto plate and CPP in 2000mm wide, custom lengths from 3000mm to 10400mm
Plate thickness: 5…20mm
Grades: Duplex LDX 2101® (EN 1.4162) and 2304 (EN 1.4362)

Contact:
Mark Basford
Outokumpu Asia Pacific Ltd, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2887 5125
Email: mark.basford(at)outokumpu.com