Spanish Container Terminal Sets Container Handling Record

SPAIN - Hutchison Port Holdings Limited (HPH) subsidiary Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) achieved a new record last week in which 7,760 TEUs were moved on the call of the MSC Beatrice. The freight terminal has an average gross crane rate (GCR) of 40 moves per hour, one of the highest productivity ratios in the world and with eight ship-to-shore gantry cranes deployed simultaneously for the operation, a peak Vessel Operating Rate of 221.3 moves per hour was achieved.

The Barcelona terminal has 1,500 metres of quay length, eleven ship-to-shore cranes, as well as 36 automatic stacking cranes and 26 shuttle carriers, allowing it to serve the largest vessels currently in operation. Guillermo Belcastro, General Manager of BEST remarked:

“BEST is the only terminal in the Mediterranean capable of reaching this level of productivity thanks to its semi-automated operations, which are supported by HPH’s proprietary terminal operating system nGen and the efforts of our team.

“This high level of productivity plus the reliability of our operations allows shipping lines to obtain important savings by reducing their time in the Port and improving the vessels’ schedule planning. The most relevant fact is that the bigger the vessel, the better our productivity rate, which is aligned with the current industry trend of increasing vessel size, and with the needs of the shipping lines”.