The first feeder ship will tie up at the EUROGATE Container Terminal Wilhelmshaven. The “Pictor J” belonging to the Unifeeder line will dock at 15.00 hours today at the southern end of the quay.
The feeder ship will bring 75 empty containers from Hamburg for the water-side trial operations. 50 empty containers are already present on site, another 50 are waiting in Bremerhaven. EUROGATE will start water-side trial operations tomorrow. The “Pictor J” is 140 metres long and has a transport capacity of 925 standard containers (TEU).
Two container gantries and six straddle carriers will be used to unload the “Pictor J”. During the water-side trial operations, EUROGATE will train its employees in loading and unloading procedures with the container gantries and straddle carriers.
All operating procedures must function smoothly when the container terminal goes into operation at the end of September and are therefore being carefully practised. The goal is to offer shipping companies a high level of handling productivity at the Wilhelmshaven location as well as direct access independently of tidal fluctuations. Although 20 straddle carriers and the four container gantries from the first delivery in March 2012 are ready for operation, trial operations will not start immediately using all of the large-scale equipment.
Instead, various procedures will be trained in isolation and operations will gradually be widened to include more pieces of large-scale equipment.
[mappress]
Dredging Today Staff, June 13, 2012; Image: EUROGATE