Ellicott Expands Wisconsin Factory Receives Record Dredge Orders
Ellicott Dredge Enterprises LLC announced at the end of August that its expanded Wisconsin facility was up running and “already filled up with dredges under construction for stock and for clients.”
The plant was expanded to 85000 square feet over four months doubling its previous size. The addition has a crane capacity of 40 tons and clearance under roof of 29 feet sufficient to build dredges up to 4000 horsepower 2983 kW completely inside.
The plant is 50 miles from Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport. Ellicott has already used the plant’s new training facilities for several foreign delegations including from Iraq and Korea.
In July the company launched the first of four Series 4170 Super-Dragon dredges for a Middle Eastern client and received more than $25 million of new orders.
The Series 4170 Super Dragon Embarka 2 will be used to build islands in the Persian Gulf off Abu Dhabi. It is 114 feet long with a maximum digging depth of 58 feet. The 27 x 24-inch pump is powered by a 2680 horsepower 64 liter MTU main engine augmented by a 1420 horsepower 49 liter MTU auxiliary engine.
Record-Setting Dredge Orders
During the month of July Ellicott and its subsidiaries Ellicott Dredges Liquid Waste Technology IMS and Mud Cat received orders and definitive letters of intent from clients around the world for a wide variety of applications. A representative sample of the new dredge orders includes:
• Series 670 Jet Dragon™ dredge for a sand and gravel operation in the Southwest United States with 50 foot digging depth. This follows on the successful introduction of a Jet Dragon employed in New Jersey by Hanson Aggregates last year. The Jet Dragon is a less costly alternative to a ladder pump dredge.
• 20-inch Series 1870 Dragon™ dredge for a West African client.
• Custom-designed bucketwheel dredge for a mining application.
• Three IMS Model 7012 Versi-Dredges™ for a private sector Middle Eastern client to be used for irrigation
• An LWT-designed Pit Hog™ Model PH730 dredge for a waste water treatment plant in Italy.
• Automated dredge with electric PLC controls for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a water reservoir project in Washington D.C.
• Mud Cat™ Model MC-2000 auger dredge for a South American government client.
• Two Swinging Dragon™ swinging ladder dredges – one from stock for a Canadian mining company and another for a municipality in New York State. Land and Water magazine’s August 2008 issue features Ellicott’s new Swinging Dragon™ dredge in an article about a 24/7 dredging operation in a difficult project: hard digging tough environmental issues like turtles nesting and long discharge distance.
• 16-inch Series 1170 Dragon with 1200 hp 900 kW installed power for a contractor in South America.
So far this year Ellicott and its units have dredge orders from 15 countries and five continents. The company delivered more than a dozen dredges in July alone.
New Painting System
The Liquid Waste Technology management team in Wisconsin is now using for smaller dredges a new powder coat paint system with a baked finish involving electrically-charged paint molecules. This process provides a superior finish both in function and appearance.
Ellicott’s Chief Operating Officer Marty Barnes commented that Ellicott is on track to deliver close to 100 dredges in 2008.
Ellicott’s President Peter Bowe noted that the company has closed a multi-million dollar term loan from a U.S. government agency the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to finance previously announced contracts for the Government of Iraq.
