Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has started operating the first of four new Neo-Panamax cranes at the Garden City Terminal situated in the Port of Savannah, Georgia, US.
The operation involved the handling of a 13,300 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEU) vessel operated by Hapag Lloyd and saw the movement of around 2,700 containers on and off the ship when it visited the port.
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Designed by Finland’s Konecranes, the super-sized crane is capable of lifting containers 152ft above the dock.
The cranes also handle vessels featuring up to 22 containers wide and have brought GPA’s total fleet of cranes under operation to 27.
Georgia Ports Authority chief operating officer Ed McCarthy said: “For shipping lines and their customers, these larger vessels mean reduced fuel costs compared to operating multiple smaller ships.
“In turn, this reduced consumption shrinks the environmental footprint of the global logistics network.”
The port authority expects to operate the second Neo-Panamax crane next week, and the final two soon after.
Garden City Terminal is also expected to take delivery of six additional cranes by 2020 to increase its current fleet of cranes to 36.
The new cranes are set to enable the port to move around 1,300 containers per hour over a single dock.
Equipped with integral generators, the cranes are also capable of capturing enough energy while lowering boxes to power themselves for 18 minutes of every working hour.
GPA noted that the additional cranes, coupled with the Savannah Harbor deepening, are expected to help facilitate the shipping industry’s move toward larger vessels.
