Germany’s Port of Hamburg has received three new gantry cranes that would provide the port with additional capacities for handling 23,000+ TEU ultra large container vessels (ULCVs).
The three cranes for the Container Terminal Burchardkai (CTB) of the Hamburg Port and Logistics AG (HHLA) arrived on November 5, 2019.
They reached the provisional berth at Athabaskakai after a journey of almost eight weeks aboard the special vessel Zhen Hua 27. There, they are prepared for the extinguishing process before the Zhen Hua 27 arrives at the final location at mooring 6 in the Waltershofer harbor.
The new bridges of the manufacturer ZPMC replace at the CTB three smaller units that have already been dismantled. In the first quarter of 2020, HHLA expects two more large container bridges of the same type. Following the gradual commissioning of the new handling equipment, HHLA has an additional large ship berth at Burchardkai.
“With the investment in five new gantry cranes and the creation of another large ship berth, we offer our shipping companies additional capacity and more flexibility in handling particularly large container ships with a transport capacity of more than 23,000 standard containers,” Jens Hansen, HHLA board member, commented.
Last year, the number of shipments of large containerships with a capacity of 18,000 to 22,000 TEU increased by 47 percent to 150 at the port. This trend continues –in the first half of 2019, the number has once again grown by almost 40 percent.
The investment in new gantry cranes is part of an expansion program at CTB. In addition to new gantry cranes and other handling equipment, these include the creation of new storage blocks and the expansion of the container terminal in 2019. HHLA plans to invest about EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) by 2022, of which around EUR 450 million is to be used for container handling.