Port Order for Straddle Carriers To Increase Throughput of Shipping Containers

IRELAND – NEW ZEALAND - GERMANY - SOUTH AMERICA - Liebherr, the materials handling specialist, tells us that it has received an order from Lyttelton, Port of Christchurch for four of the company’s straddle carriers capable of lifting shipping containers one over two high to enhance the South Island port’s freight handling capability as box throughput increased by 16.8% at the port to the end of June 2012.

The four SC350T machines are to be supplied with a 50 foot spreader and will join a pair of Liebherr ship to shore cranes at the port already in situ. The cranes will be linked to a remote container tracking system, providing real-time accurate information on the position and handling rates of containers within the terminal. Several years ago Lyttelton was the first port in the world to install the Navis computer technology, now found in over fifty similar situations in container terminals worldwide.

Last November we reported how the North Island’s Port of Tauranga had ordered three of Liebherr’s Irish built straddle carriers and once again this latest order followed detailed evaluations by port engineers and drivers during site visits to existing terminals using Liebherr machines.

Christchurch it seems is recovered from the traumatic scenes witnessed during the earthquakes of two years ago and the new cranes are scheduled for delivery from Liebherr’s County Kerry plant in mid 2013.

In other news it was Liebherr’s plant in Rostock which produced the huge heavy lift crane currently being installed upon the support vessel Caballo Marango. Our picture shows the overload test under way in which the giant crane, with a maximum boom length of over one hundred metres, successfully hoisted 1,100 tonnes, 110% of its scheduled capacity.

Forming part of the Caballo Marango’s equipment it is intended to execute future assembly and reconstruction work on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for the Mexican service company Oceanografia. The crane, type BOS35000,slews especially easily making it suitable for installing offshore wind parks as well as working on oil and gas facilities.