June 16 - The first three ship-to-shore gantry cranes have been delivered to the Port of Felixstowe's new Felixstowe South development.
The cranes are the biggest of their type in the world, and are capable of handling future generations of container ships with 24 containers wide on deck.
Built by Zhenhua Port Machinery Company (ZPMC) of Shanghai, the cranes were transported fully erect from China to the Port of Felixstowe. Each crane weighs approximately 2,000 tonnes and is capable of lifting two containers simultaneously up to a total of 70 tonnes.
Commenting on the arrival of the cranes, David Gledhill, Chief Executive Officer of Hutchison Ports (UK) Limited, which owns the Port of Felixstowe, said: "With the first of the quayside cranes on site, Felixstowe South is quickly becoming a reality. We recently took delivery of the first batch of yard cranes and the main work on the quay wall is complete, with the fenders now being fitted. We are making good progress laying the 19 million concrete blocks that will make up the storage yard area and will have everything in place to handle the first trial vessels later this year."
To increase stability of such large cranes, the distance between the waterside and landside legs (the rail gauge) has been increased from the 30m at the port's Trinity Terminal to 35m for the new cranes.
