Florida’s PortMiami on Monday saw the arrival of four new Super Post-Panamax cranes as the port prepares for larger ships ahead of the opening of the new expanded Panama Canal in 2015.

“The Post-Panamax Era is near at hand,” said Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “The new PortMiami cranes represent an investment that ensures that we remain competitive in the global marketplace. PortMiami’s new cranes ensure that our cargo yards will be able to handle the increasingly larger vessels calling on Ports around the world.”

Here is a collection of photos from their arrival:

PortMiami’s cranes departed from Shanghai, China on board the ZHEN HUA 13 on July 10.  The ship was piloted into the port Monday by Capt. Michael McDonnell of the Biscayne Bay Pilots.

With the arrival of the four new gantry cranes, PortMiami has a total of 13 cranes, six which are Super Post-Panamax with a reach of 22 containers versus 13 containers on the older and smaller cranes.

Today, the average container vessels calling on PortMiami is approximately 3,000 to 4,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent) but the newer ships are nearly double in size with the largest having TEU capacity topping 18,000 TEUs.

The journey from China concluded Monday afternoon when the fully erect structures were delivered to the Port’s cargo wharf.

The new cranes increase PortMiami’s loading and unloading efficiencies,” said PortMiami Director Bill Johnson. “We set an ambitious goal to double our cargo traffic over the next several years—the new cranes are an important component in our growth strategy.”

The new cranes are among $2 billion in capital improvements currently underway at PortMiami. Other on-going infrastructure projects include the deepening of the Port’s main channel to -50/52 feet, new on-dock rail and the completion of the port tunnel that will allow PortMiami to welcome a new generation of larger container vessels.

As Miami Herald notes, the Port of Savannah, Miami’s chief rival in the Southeast and the top port in the region for containerized cargo, also took delivery of four super post-Panamax cranes in June, bringing Georgia Ports Authority’s fleet of super post-panamax cranes to 16.

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