Feature, Freight News, Sea

New Cranes for London Container Terminal

[ June 20, 2014   //   Chris ]

London Container Terminal in Tilbury this week saw the first of its two panamax ship to shore cranes fully operational.  The first of the two cranes boomed down onto the Samskip vessel, the Henrike Schepers, with her cargo of containers for the UK market.

 Spanish company, Paceco Espana S.A., were awarded the contract for two cranes in 2013 which brings the number of Paceco ship to shore cranes at Tilbury to 10, six of which are from Paceco Espana. Tilbury has four post-panamax cranes, two built in 2001 and two built in 2004. The two new 13 box wide ship to shore cranes are now fully operational.

 The Paceco cranes are designed and purpose built to handle feeder vessels. With a clearance of 17.0 metres between the legs, this enables efficient handling of 45ft containers.  The crane is designed to handle heavy laden containers and can lift 40 tonnes under a single lift spreader. They are capable of lifting 57 tonnes under the headblock and 45 tonnes under a twin-lift spreader.

 Perry Glading, Chief Operating Officer of Forth Ports (owners of London Container Terminal), said: “It’s great to see our new Paceco ship to shore cranes fully operational this week and already delivering an excellent service for our customers in the short sea and Mediterranean markets. With this investment we continue to secure Tilbury’s position as a key shipping and distribution location with unrivalled access to London and the South East of England.

 Commenting on the new crane, Mark Barrett, Managing Director UK from Samskip said: Our vessel, the Henrike Schepers, was unloaded very efficiently by the new Paceco Crane at LCT. It’s important that we have a quick turnaround at the port with our key market connections and we need LCT to deliver a great service for us. So we were delighted to be part of the crane’s first job!

 In addition to the two Paceco ship-to-shore cranes, LCT have also recently invested in a Liebherr 550 mobile crane, 14 new Kalmar straddle carrier, a single reception gate covering both security and container processing, new cranes, a bespoke ICT system and surfacing work.  Forth Ports’ investment programme at London Container Terminal comes to around £20million in total.

Tags: London Container Terminal, Samskip