The world’s biggest container gantries are the core of the future EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s only deepwater container terminal.
Four out of the eight container cranes altogether that will go into operation at the first two berths in August 2012 have set sail from Shanghai on a special transporter vessel headed for the German North Sea coast. A second ship with four more gantries on board is to follow soon. Upon completion, a total of sixteen of these giant cranes will be lined up along the 1,725-m-long quay wall of the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven, allowing four mega container ships to be loaded and unloaded at the same time, 24/7. Thanks to the nautical access route (18 m water depth), geographical location and technical facilities, the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven – as Germany’s only deepwater port – is ideally suited for handling ULCVs with a load capacity of over 10,000 TEUs.
The route taken by the special transporter ship will pass by Hong Kong, Singapore, via the Indonesian Straits of Sundra, the Cape of Good Hope and through the English Channel to Wilhelmshaven. The steel cranes each weigh around 1,800 tonnes and have a jib length of 69 metres for servicing container vessels with a width of 25 containers on deck. With the jib extended, the EUROGATE cranes project around 125 metres high into the air – the sidelines of a football pitch measure on average 105 metres.
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World Maritime News Staff, January 30, 2012; Image: Eurogate