Bigger Containerships Means Bigger Gantry Cranes

New cranes arrive at the Port of Virginia on the Zhen Hua 24, image: Port of Virginia

Awkwardly perched on cargo ships such as the Zhen Hua 24 are new and bigger cranes destined be installed at shipping ports around the world.

The recent delivery of huge new containerships like CMA CGM Marco Polo and the 18,000 TEU Mærsk McKinney-Møller, as well as the expansion of the Panama Canal marks a new era of global container shipping, one that is requiring ports worldwide to supersize their cranes.

APM Terminals released the following graphic today showing how container cranes have evolved in size over the years.

APM notes that a number of their ports have been recently upgraded to handle the world’s largest containerships.

In the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelapas eight new taller cranes were installed along with two new berths, each 350 metres long and 19 ½ metres deep. The two berths are side by side, giving a total length of 700 metres – allowing for a 400 meter Triple-E to be easily accommodated.

At Algeciras on the southern tip of Spain, preparations are underway to install to make room for Triple-E class vessels by installing new taller cranes and dredging the surrounding water ways.

In the Port of Savannah in the U.S. southeast, which for clarification is not an APM Terminal, four super-post Panamax cranes arrived this past June from Nantong, China bringing their total number of super post-Panamax cranes to 16.

Have new cranes at your port? Feel free to send us a photo and a description and we’ll put it up on the site…

Updated: February 27, 2014 (Originally published July 15, 2013)

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