Germany: First Four Container Cranes for EUROGATE Arrive in Wilhelmshaven

The special transport vessel from China with the first four container cranes for the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven on board docked at the quayside this morning.

The “Zhenhua 23” belonging to the Chinese company ZPMC, which departed from Shanghai on 6 January 2012, spent two months at sea transporting the world’s biggest handling cranes for Germany’s only deep-water container port. The container cranes are capable of handling vessels with 25 container rows on deck. Upon completion, a total of 16 of these giant container cranes will be lined up along the Wilhelmshaven quay wall. For the first 1,000-m section – to go into operation in August this year – eight container cranes have been ordered, the first four of which arrived at the Wilhelmshaven quayside this morning. A second container vessel carrying four more gantries is to depart from Shanghai soon. The route will take the cranes from China around the Cape of Good Hope and past the Canary Islands in the direction of the North Sea.

“We view these container cranes as an investment in the future,” said Marcel Egger, managing director of EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven GmbH & Co. KG and member of the EUROGATE Group management, on the reception tour for the imposing mega cranes. “Currently the world’s biggest container vessel with a load capacity of 15,550 TEUs has 22 container rows on deck, while all other mega carriers, including the 18,000-TEU ship on order have 23 container rows on deck. Our cranes on the other hand are capable of handling as many as 25 containers on deck and are therefore suited to handling ships that are not yet on the market. Thanks to this investment, our terminal will be able to keep pace with future developments in ship sizes.”

The container gantries will be moved ashore one by one during the coming weeks and made ready for trial operation. Even once the giant cranes are up and ready, there is still work to be done, for example connection to the medium voltage power supply.

Key data:

Total weight: 1,750 t per crane

Pylon height: 83 m

Height with extended jib: 126 m

Usable jib length: 69 m (25 containers on deck)

Load bearing capacity: 120 t (on the cables)

About EUROGATE:

EUROGATE is the leading, independent container terminal logistics Group in Europe. Jointly with Contship Italia, the network operates ten container terminals from the North Sea coast to the Mediterranean area. The new sea terminal in Wilhelmshaven is currently under construction. The range of services is rounded off by intermodal transport and cargomodal services. EUROGATE was established in 1999, and handled over 13 million TEU in 2011.

EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven GmbH & Co. KG is the operator of the container terminal at JadeWeserPort, Wilhelmshaven, Germany’s first and only deep-water port. From August 2012 this port, which has a draught of 18 m, will service and efficiently handle the world’s largest container ships independently of the tides. After completion of the container terminal, the operating company – a joint venture between EUROGATE GmbH & Co. KGaA, KG (70%), the holding company of the EUROGATE Group, and APMT Wilhelmshaven GmbH (30%), an indirect fully-owned subsidiary of A.P. Moeller Maersk Group, Copenhagen, Denmark – will employ a staff of around 1,000.

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Dredging Today Staff, March 6, 2012; Image: eurogate