Stone-Ideas.com 
The availability of containers has been a key issue in the global exchange of goods since long before the Covid pandemic. An innovation is coming from Brazil’s stone sector that aims to remedy the situation: Open cargo units instead of closed boxes are being used for stone slabs. As initial practical tests have shown, this can significantly reduce transport times and can also have positive environmental effects.
The concept was developed by Cruzzto, a company based in Vitória in the natural stone state of Espírito Santo, together with Spinola, a local company specializing in port equipment. Their innovative transport unit, called “StoneLift,“ has been patented.
Investors are being sought for the international market launch.
Put simply, StoneLift uses vertical struts into which the stone slabs are placed in an open container. As the test has shown, this can be a total of 28 tons of stone. A comparable 20-foot container can hold 24 tons of stone.
Within the unit, the panels are only secured with tensioning belts. Fabio Cruz, CEO of Cruzzto: “We found a Brazilian company that can supply suitable belts that are also easy to use.“
The photos show the equipment for the test. “Later, there may be fewer belts,“ says Cruz.
This gives the system an important environmental aspect: Normally, the panels are wedged in the container with pieces of wood. This brings problems with it: Since insects like to lay their eggs in this wood, many pests have spread worldwide through container shipping; the answer to this, namely impregnating the wood and fumigating the containers before opening, leads to environmental pollution and increased transport costs.
However, transport units without walls allow the salty sea water and the sea wind to get to the stone slabs. The test in October/November 2024 from the port of Portocel north of Vitória in Espírito Santo to Port Arthur not far from Houston, Texas, put the transport through a tough test: Hurricane Milton passed nearby for three days with six-meter-high waves. The stones showed no effects of the salty shower (which, by the way, was not to be expected).
Nevertheless, Fabio Cruz’s team is currently working on this topic: “The behavior of ordinary granite does not necessarily indicate types of stone with unusual mineral compositions.“ Further tests will show this.
In cooperation with an Italian company, research is currently being carried out into how resination and sea water interact.
In order not to expose the valuable material to unnecessary stress, however, a semi-closed version of StoneLift is currently being developed. It is intended to have a special canvas as a cover.
“StoneLift meets the standards for international shipping,“ says Fabio Cruz. Stacking is also possible. However, the open boxes only consist of about half as much steel (around 1.3 t) as a normal container.
The frame can be dismantled into its individual parts for return transport. Cruzzto has already tried this out in a cooperation with GT Ocean.
It is not surprising that the idea for this development comes from Brazil. Its stone sector, 80% of which is concentrated in the state of Espírito Santo in the south, has long suffered from a shortage of containers: Stone deliveries often had to wait in the port of Vitória or were taken by truck or coastal shipping to ports further north, from where they could then begin their journey to the US market.
That is why the initiators emphasize the time savings as a positive result in their test summary: The transport described (port to port) took around 21 days, including the stop in Mobile, Alabama because of Hurricane Milton.
Sometimes a normal transport for such a distance even takes 90 days.
Fabio Cruz summarizes: “50% time savings are usual, 60% can be achieved.“
Photos: Cruzzto
