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Contract to Boost McDuffie Terminal Output

[ January 31, 2025   //   ]

The Alabama Port Authority in December it has awarded a contract to Richmond Engineering Works, or REW, to produce two new stacker reclaimers.
Pittsburgh-based REW will engineer, fabricate and install the new equipment at McDuffie Coal Terminal, with all engineering and fabrication to occur within the U.S.
The new stacker reclaimers are an important component of the US$200 million McDuffie Coal Terminal modernization project and will replace two aging units installed in 1974 and 1982. The advanced machines will nearly double the productivity of the old equipment, ensuring the terminal’s loading rates meet the increased capacity of the deeper ship channel and additional demand from customers’ mine investments statewide.
“With the widening and deepening of the channel coming online next year, these investments are a top priority for the Port so we can load bigger ships with more cargo even more efficiently,” said John Driscoll, Director and CEO of the Alabama Port Authority.
Mobile’s Harbor deepening and widening project, to be completed in May, will take the channel from 45 to 50 feet. Depending on vessel configurations, the port estimates that the additional five feet of depth could allow the terminal to load 25,000 to 35,000 more tons of coal per ship.
REW, which specializes in bulk material handling equipment, will spend at least 34 percent of the contract value, or about US$20.5 million, with Alabama-based fabricators, suppliers, and contractors, as well as local Mobile-area businesses.
“These will be the first machines of this size built in the U.S. and engineered by a U.S.-based company in nearly 50 years,” said Mark Judy, REW operating manager. “All of the fabrication for these machines will be done in the U.S., with much of it provided by Alabama-based shops. Construction labor will be performed by Mobile-area contractors.
REW in the past few years has supplied a new rail car dumper and a train positioner, along with major upgrades to barge unloading equipment at McDuffie Coal Terminal, Judy said.
REW’s barge unloading project for McDuffie was funded by a US$20 million appropriation from the State of Alabama in 2022, with an additional US$5 million secured in 2023.
Ninety-seven percent coal passing through McDuffie Terminal is metallurgical coal mined in Alabama for use in steel-making operations worldwide. Much of this steel returns through the Port of Mobile for use in the Alabama automotive industry, further supporting Alabama businesses, the port said.

The older Stacker Reclaimer, installed in 1974, as it looks today. PHOTO: Alabama Port Authority

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