Ship Technology
China-based ZPMC has been selected to provide 12 remote-controlled ship-to-shore (STS) cranes for APM Terminals’ MedPort Tangier facility, currently under construction at Tanger-Med II port complex in Morocco.
APM Terminals has also placed an order for 32 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes (ARMG), which will be installed at the facility, with Austria-based Künz.
Once complete, the five million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) container terminal will be able to serve ultra-large container ships (ULCS) with capacities up to 20,000 TEUs.
It will be APM Terminals’ second terminal at the Tanger-Med port complex, featuring up to 2,000m of quay length and will increase the Tanger-Med complex’s overall capacity to more than nine million TEUs.
“Our goal is to use proven technology to create high-productivity for clients on one of the world’s most strategically important trade lanes.”
APM Terminals MedPort Tangier managing director Dennis Olesen said: “Our goal is to use proven technology to create high-productivity for our clients on one of the world’s most strategically important trade lanes on the Strait of Gibraltar.”
Deliveries of both the STS cranes and ARMGs are scheduled by the end of next year.
The STS cranes will feature full automation, including a remote crane operator to be located in an office building near the quay, a second trolley, and optical character recognition (OCR) technology.
Last month, APM Terminals had started the process of increasing the heights of ten STS cranes located at the US’ Los Angeles Pier 400 facility in order to operate ultra-large container ships.
As part of the initiative, the height of the first crane was raised by 33ft.
Image: APM Terminals’ new MedPort Tangier will be able to serve ultra-large container ships. Photo: courtesy of APM Terminals.
