IN Brief:
- Sarens has completed what it describes as the first tandem operation involving two giant ring cranes of this class.
- The lift combined the upgraded SGC-120/1 with the new fully electric SGC-170 at SIF’s Rotterdam facilities.
- The operation points to heavier, more integrated module handling for offshore, civil, and major energy projects.
Sarens has carried out a tandem heavy-lift operation at SIF’s Rotterdam facilities using two of its largest ring cranes, marking a notable step forward in the scale and coordination of modular lifting work. The lift paired the upgraded SGC-120/1 with the new SGC-170, creating what the company describes as the first simultaneous tandem operation involving two giant ring cranes of this class.
The newer crane is central to the engineering story. Sarens said the SGC-170 was designed in-house, delivers a 170,000 ton-metre load moment, lifts up to 3,200 tonnes, and runs on a fully electric, zero-emission architecture. In boom-and-jib configuration, it can lift 1,300 tonnes to more than 200 metres, while its modular design is intended to reduce assembly time and make relocation faster despite the machine’s size.
The SGC-120/1 brings a different kind of upgrade. Sarens said the machine lifts beyond 3,500 tonnes and reaches 140,000 T/m, around 45% above the original SGC-120, through reinforced structural components and changes to the counterweight and power systems. The result is a higher-capacity machine that retains the compact footprint and transport characteristics that made the original ring crane attractive on constrained sites and in specialist yards.
The Rotterdam operation also depended on choreography rather than headline capacity alone. Sarens said its TP-Handler was used to sequence and prepare heavy loads so the two cranes could work continuously with less interference between movements. That matters in environments where offshore wind structures, nuclear components, or other oversized assemblies are being handled at pace and with very little room for operational drift.
For the wider market, the significance is less about spectacle than throughput. Larger pre-assembled components, tighter yard schedules, and lower-emission lifting systems are beginning to converge, and that changes the value placed on mobilisation speed, footprint, and control as much as raw tonnage. Rotterdam is a reminder that the next gains in heavy lifting are increasingly being made in the interface between equipment design, power architecture, and lift planning.
