Mobile Ship Loader

A mobile ship loader is the equipment ports and harbors use to load dry bulk — coal, grain, ore, cement — onto vessels. Mounted on wheels or tracks, it moves between berths and ships without disassembly, giving terminals flexibility that fixed loaders cannot match. SANTO builds mobile, tracked and wheeled loaders for barges through Capesize carriers.

Key Features and Engineering Highlights

Technical Specifications

Specifications are indicative for the standard configuration. Belt width, boom length, drive power, chassis type and discharge height are engineered to your material and duty cycle — send us your requirements for a tailored data sheet.

How a mobile ship loader works

Bulk material arrives via a feeder, stacker or quay conveyor and is carried along the loader’s boom to the vessel hold. Telescopic and radial motion place it accurately while dust systems capture fines at the discharge.

Because the machine is mobile, a terminal uses one loader across several berths, smoothing workload and reducing congestion compared with a single fixed structure per quay.

Types and configurations

SANTO offers three families. Telescopic loaders extend and retract for flexible reach and often include dust suppression. Tracked loaders use a crawler undercarriage for stability on soft or uneven aprons and larger capacities. Wheeled loaders move fastest between docks and deploy in minutes.

For crawler-based high-capacity duty, the crawler-type mobile ship loader adds 360° boom rotation and a robust steel structure for harsh ports.

• Telescopic mobile ship loader
• Tracked (crawler) ship loader
• Wheeled mobile ship loader

Where it is applied

Loaders serve coal carriers, iron/copper/gold ore vessels, grain ships (corn, soybeans, wheat), sawdust and wood-chip boats, fertilizer carriers, and aggregate, sand, gravel, crushed rock and cement-clinker load-out.

Ports, river terminals and mine-adjacent wharves gain the most, particularly where volumes vary and a fixed structure would sit idle. Pair it with a grasshopper conveyor to feed from a distant stockpile.

• Coal export terminals
• Grain and fertilizer ports
• Ore and clinker wharves
• River and inland barge terminals

Selection and operation tips

Match mounting to the apron: wheels for firm, fast-changing docks; crawlers for soft ground and higher capacities with greater stability. Choose telescopic boom length by your largest vessel’s hold depth.

Run dust suppression continuously on dry cargoes to meet environmental limits, and use automated boom control to fill multiple holds from one berthing position without relocating.

Frequently Asked Questions

What vessel sizes can it load?

From barges up to Handymax, Panamax, Supramax and Capesize bulk carriers, depending on boom and mounting.

Wheeled or tracked — which to choose?

Wheels for fast moves on firm docks; crawlers for soft, uneven ground and higher capacities with greater stability.

How does it control dust?

Discharge-point dust extraction plus spray systems capture fines, important for coal and mineral cargoes.

What materials can it load?

Coal, iron/copper/gold ore, grain, sawdust, wood chips, fertilizer, aggregate, sand, gravel, crushed rock and cement clinker.