APM Terminals Commissions Giant New Container Cranes at Port of New York and New Jersey

APM Terminals, a subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk, has announced the commissioning of two state-of-the-art ZPMC Super-Post Panamax ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at its Port Elizabeth terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Designed with a 23-container outreach, the new cranes are capable of accommodating both Neo-Panamax and Ultra-Large Container Vessels (ULCVs) with capacities of up to 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent containers (TEUs). Following successful testing, the cranes are now fully operational and ready to handle the largest ships calling on U.S. east coast ports.

Port Elizabeth is APM Terminals’ largest terminal on the east coast of North America. Henrik Kristensen, Managing Director of APM Terminals Elizabeth, said the new cranes will improve productivity by allowing multiple large ships to be worked simultaneously. “This reduces port stay time and improves the speed of our customer supply chains. The increased capacity we are bringing to the Port of New York and New Jersey aligns with the industry trend of deploying larger container vessels that are more efficient and represent a more sustainable approach to ocean shipping,” said Kristensen.

The two cranes are the first of six that are part of a $70 million investment to supplement APM Terminals Elizabeth’s four existing Super-Post Panamax cranes capable of servicing ULCVs. The addition of the six Super-Post Panamax cranes will bring the total number STS cranes at the terminal to 14, including the 10 identical Super-Post Panamax cranes, along its 6,000-foot quay. Thew six new cranes are all expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2025.

“We’re excited to see these investments further build on our port’s reputation for efficiency and reliability, as the East Coast’s busiest port and one of the top three busiest ports in the nation,” said Bethann Rooney, Port Department Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. “After a year of record cargo volume, we’re moving ahead with significant capacity upgrades alongside meaningful collaboration with partners across the supply chain as we position ourselves for even more growth in the years to come.”

The Port of New York and Jersey is the busiest port on the U.S. East Coast. Through October, the port has handled more than 6.5 million TEUs in 2023, with APM Terminals Elizabeth accounting for nearly a quarter of the port’s container volume.

The new cranes come on the heels of a $200 million terminal improvement project announced in 2018, which has included berth-area reinforcements, a modernized gate facility and trucker appointment system, and crane procurements that increased the terminal’s vessel lift capacity from 900,000 to over 1.5 million lifts annually.

The commissioning of the cranes also come amid growing security concerns related to the use of Chinese-built cranes in U.S. ports. ZPMC, or Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co., is a China state-owned company whose major shareholder is China Communications Construction Co.

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