Port Terminal Operators Plump for Container and Bulk Freight Handling Equipment

GERMANY – FRANCE – FINLAND – US – Liebherr Maritime Cranes, the division of the Liebherr Group which specialises in bespoke cargo handling solutions for ports, as well as for the shipping and offshore industry has provided one of its Liebherr mobile harbour cranes (LHM) type LHM 550 to the single freight container and break bulk terminal operator at Montoir de Bretagne/Saint-Nazaire on the French Atlantic coast. For the buyer, Terminal du Grand Ouest (TGO), this is the first crane of the type and was selected for its durability and versatility.

TGO not only handles containers and general cargo but also quantities of scrap metal and consequently a mobile harbour crane was the best solution for the terminal as it can be used for safe general cargo operation and efficient scrap, bulk or container handling, simply by an easy exchange of the lifting attachment. Although the LHM 550 is the first for TGO, Liebherr has delivered to Montoir de Bretagne in France when in 2012, Liebherr Maritime Cranes delivered its 1000th mobile harbour crane to the Atlantic coast. That unit was ordered by Montoir Bulk Terminal where it continues to handle the bulk freight it has been specially configured for.

Manufactured and pre-tested at Liebherr’s production site in Rostock, the latest mobile harbour crane has demonstrated its capabilities right from the start. The first jobs included some impressive lifts, loading a sterilisation chamber onto a vessel. Destined for Vera Cruz in Mexico, the chamber came in four pieces, each weighing 91 tonnes. Thanks to the remarkable lifting capacity of the new crane, these parts were loaded directly to the vessel, saving costs and emissions. Ilyasse Aksil, CEO of TGO, expressed his company’s satisfaction with their new purchase, saying:

“The LHM 550 helps us to develop our heavy-lift cargo handling and scrap metal business, especially in terms of loading heavier parts and larger vessels. The crane offers a lifting capacity up to 144 tonnes, which is unique in this region. We are optimistic that this investment in advanced port equipment will also attract new customers, since we have expanded our service portfolio while maintaining the high quality standards TGO stands for.”

Another crane maker with recent successful sales is Finnish outfit Konecranes with an order received in March from DP World’s Yarimca container terminal in Turkey for eighteen Rubber Tyred Gantry (RTGs). The all-electric cable reel RTGs will be delivered in 2015 whilst Konecranes has previously delivered container handling equipment to DP World terminals in Algeria, Egypt, India and the UAE, but this order is the first all-electric RTG order for DP World.

DP World’s Yarimca container terminal is being developed by DP World, the world’s third largest global container terminal operator and will be managed by subsidiary DP World Yarimca Liman İşletmeleri A.Ş, and is destined to be one of the biggest container terminals in Turkey with an annual capacity of 1.3 Million TEU. The 16-wheel cable reel RTGs will stack 1-over-5 containers high and 7 plus truck lane wide and will include a full suite of safety and productivity enhancing features.

Konecranes have also intimated that they are to receive an order for 4 Super Post Panamax Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes and 20 Rubber-Tired-Gantry (RTG) cranes from the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) in the US. The order placement is apparently imminent with the cranes scheduled to arrive to Savannah by March 2016. The GPA Board recently approved more than $80 million to purchase the cranes which are to be used to handle containers at Garden City Terminal.

The order will bring the number of Konecranes Ship-to-Shore cranes in the Port of Savannah to 27 whilst the 20 RTGs, due for staggered delivery over a two year period, will bring the Port of Savannah’s Konecranes RTG fleet to 136.

The Port of Savannah, home to the largest single-terminal container facility of its kind in North America, is comprised of two modern, deep water terminals, Garden City Terminal and Ocean Terminal. Together these facilities exemplify the GPA’s exacting standards of efficiency and productivity and the Port of Savannah handled 8% of the US containerised cargo volume and 10.9% of all US containerised exports in 2013.

Photo: Liebherr’s latest LHM550 at work in France.