Tuesday, July 10, 2012

New Container Cranes Will Help South African Terminals Achieve Freight Targets

Liebherr Continue to Supply Transnet Ship to Shore Needs
Shipping News Feature

SOUTH AFRICA – The promised expansion of the giant Ngqura Container Terminal (NCT), which lies to the north east of Port Elizabeth, continues with the installation of two more Super Post Panamax ship to shore cranes supplied by Liebherr Container Cranes which brings a total of eight of the machines now operating at the Transnet operated freight facility. The cranes have an outreach of 52 metres and the acquisition of these two cranes increases to twenty seven the number of Liebherr ship to shore cranes operated by the South African ports group.

Ngqura Container Terminal has a capacity of over 800,000 TEU’s per annum and is expected to reach a capacity of 1,500,000 TEU’s by 2013/2014 with a forecasted capacity of 2,000,000 TEU’s by 2019, a huge jump from the actual total of boxes handled when we reviewed performance 18 months ago. Ngqura Container terminal has a draft alongside of 16.5m which means that in association with the new Liebherr cranes, it will be in a position to handle the largest Super Post Panamax vessels.

The new units have 37 metre lift heights with a safe load of 60 tonnes beneath a suitable spreader with Liebherr D.C. drives and both cranes include the Liebherr Visuscan Crane Management System and operate with the Navis SPARCS N4 terminal operating system. The installed Liebherr ship to shore cranes are capable of handling upwards of 200,000 TEU’s per annum meaning Ngqura Is now well on its way to reaching its targets and is set to follow in the footsteps of Durban, Africa’s busiest port. Liebherr Container Cranes’ sales and marketing manager Gerry Bunyan, commented:

“We are delighted to have delivered and commissioned these cranes in Ngqura, the first Liebherr ship to shore crane commenced operation for Transnet in 2004. Since then we have worked very closely with Transnet supplying ship to shore cranes that have been an integral part of their continued growth. The acquisition of the Liebherr cranes for the Ngqura Container Terminal will help to meet projected growth in the port’s volume demand.”

Photo: a Bank of Liebherr cranes in action in Ngqura