The pandemic reveals that the global shipping industry has developed to and sometimes beyond its limits. Julian Champkin investigated the response of ports and terminals and found that size really matters.
Industries around the world were shut down due to a sudden pandemic, and a few weeks later demand almost also rebounded suddenly, leading to disruption and chaos in the world's port system. The loading and unloading schedule collapsed and the import and export stalled. Then, a ship wedged on the Suez Canal for just six days, disturbingly almost completely paralyzed world trade.
Huge container ships line up at anchorages, sometimes as long as several weeks, waiting for the port to unload. Shipowners pay a huge price, and the intended recipient of the goods pays even more for delays and unfulfilled orders.
In the UK, supermarkets saw empty shelves; even IKEA, the epitome of ready-made consumer satisfaction, lamented "our store lacks too many products" and started buying its own containers and renting its own ships in an effort to overcome delays .
If nothing else, the combination of the pandemic and Ever Given’s container ships has focused the world’s attention on world trade and supply chains-which actually means shipping and, more importantly, the ports that handle the shipping. "The logistics department is so finely adjusted, a relatively small shift in the balance of supply and demand has brought a major challenge." This is Mark Whitworth, CEO of Peel Ports, which operates seven ports in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Whitworth) in a white paper in September 2020. It may involve some understatement.
Size and proportion are the basis of the equation. Can larger ships and larger loading and unloading equipment solve the pressure on the global supply system? Port owners and operators seem to be working on this hypothesis. Prior to the pandemic, larger and deeper dock berths and longer and more efficient unloading gantry were ordered, and many are now being delivered. In terms of ship size, Panamax container ships in the 1980s can carry up to 4,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent, or standard containers), which have been post-Panamax ships (8,000 TEU), and then new Panamax or new Panamax (12,500 TEU). TEU) beyond 2006, the capacity of ultra-large container ships or VLCS can reach 14,500 TEU. In 2019, the first Megamax-24 ship was delivered, carrying 24 rows of 25,000 TEUs, stacked to a height of 10 stories above the deck. Ports and port equipment are also expanding simultaneously.
The Port of Everglades in Florida is an example. Located in Broward County facing the Atlantic Ocean, the port received three Super Panamax container gantry cranes on November 17, 2020; they are the largest of their kind in the world. In March this year, the new crane was put into use. They are part of the port’s $3 billion 20-year overall vision renewal plan, which will add new cargo berths, expand cruise and energy capacity, and improve waterways to handle larger ships. Three 53-meter-high Super Post-Panamax container gantry cranes, each costing US$13.8 million, can handle eight-story containers from the ship’s deck and can lift 22 containers on the ship’s deck-this arrangement is carried by the VLCS . The existing seven gantry cranes in the Port of Everglades are located in the Southport area. Most container cargo operations are carried out in this area. They are only 46 meters high and can only handle stacked containers of 6 heights and 16 widths.
After the boom is fully extended, the back extension distance is 10.6m, and the lifting capacity is 66t. Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (ZPMC) designed and manufactured the crane as a special "low profile" model that extends outward instead of upward to avoid flying at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which is less than two miles away route. According to reports, they are the largest small container gantry cranes ever designed and built. The Port of Everglades plans to exercise the option to purchase three identical cranes immediately after obtaining approval from the local planning authority.
All cranes are equipped with lighting equipment to reduce the impact on nesting turtles by using lower light levels and limit the amount of light spread on the ground.
In addition to purchasing new cranes, the port will also upgrade its 7 existing low-profile Post-Panamax gantry cranes in Southport from the current 46.5 tons to 65 tons; this change will increase the ability to perform double picking. Lift two containers at a time.
These cranes are part of the largest expansion project in the port’s history, which includes extending the Southport Turning Notch from 900 feet to 2,400 feet to allow up to five new freight berths, which will increase the port’s capacity by approximately 730,000 TEUs . The $471 million project is under construction and is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Everglades Port also cooperated with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the port’s channel from 42 feet to 48-50 feet and widen narrower passages for larger ships to pass through.
Austria does not have a coastline, so it may be considered unlikely to be another candidate for the title of "world's largest" port equipment. But it does claim that its port in Enns, where the river of the same name meets the Danube, is one of the most important inland ports in Europe. It is operated by Danubia Speicherei and has 2,500 meters of dock space. At the height of the pandemic, it assembled and commissioned the giant Sennebogen 895, which is said to be the largest material handling machine in the world.
This is a special committee for special situations: “The port handles all kinds of materials, from grains and fertilizers to salt and general cargo,” said Georg Dobesberger, general manager of the port. “The existing two rope-driven port crane solutions are outdated, spare parts are becoming more expensive, and the loading and unloading volume of the terminal is increasing. Today, approximately 950,000 tons of various materials are processed every year.
"However, what is special is that the pier walls are quite high, depending on the water level-only the 895, which has a huge size, can meet all the requirements for range, depth and speed."
The machine has a track gantry that can adapt to the existing track gauge width, up to 35m, and a port cab that can lift up to 7 meters.
The power supply covers a travel distance of 300 meters through an electric cable reel.
"Electricity options are both resourceful and environmentally friendly," Dobesberger said, "and because of the low electricity prices, it makes sense from a financial point of view." The quick-change system can switch between various grabbing applications to handle heavy and light bulk. Materials and general goods. "However, the greatest flexibility is that we can now unload along the entire terminal," Dobesberger said.
On the northern coast of Europe, the port of Bremerhaven, Germany, at the mouth of the Weser River, is also expanding. North Sea Terminal Bremerhaven is a container terminal that handles more than 3 million TEUs per year. In January, it received four Liebherr ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes. This is in addition to the six people already working in the port.
These cranes are the same as the cranes previously supplied, with an outreach of 73 m, a span of 30.48 m, and a back reach of 25 m. They are one of the largest STS cranes in the world.
These cranes are designed to stack up to 10 layers of containers and ships with up to 25 layers of containers on the deck.
As we have seen, the Megamax-24 class, the largest ship currently, can stack 24 containers. Therefore, these cranes are future-oriented, capable of handling ultra-large container ships that have not been built for several generations.
(There is a consensus that the span of 25 containers is close to the commercial limit of the size of container ships. Large ships have almost no available routes, and they need almost full cargo to be profitable; waiting to obtain them at the port will severely limit flexibility.)
These cranes are not only the largest cranes, but also one of the most advanced cranes. The Liebherr automation system allows semi-automatic movement; manual intervention is only required when it is below a predetermined safety altitude. The port operates straddle carriers on the land side. The crane is equipped with a yard monitoring system that can scan for obstacles, hazards or straddle carriers in the operation area, and allows containers to be placed at the target location only when it is safe.
The innovative straddle carrier lane cover only opens above the movable lane to provide protection for ground personnel. The laser collision avoidance system and the ship drift compensation system can provide safety guarantee.
“We have invested in these state-of-the-art large cranes not only for the present, but also for the future,” said Christian Lankenau, managing director of the port.
"They are a key part of our growth and expansion plan."
At the same time, across the pond, Logistec Stevedoring, a dry bulk terminal operator in the Port of Montreal, has ordered a Gottwald Model 7 mobile port crane from Konecranes to improve its technical and ecological efficiency. The order was booked in June 2021. The crane will be used to process dry bulk cargo such as scrap metal and will be delivered in October this year.
The Port of Montreal serves Toronto and central Canada and the Midwest and Northeast of the United States. Nearly half of its import traffic comes from Europe. Therefore, it needs to be able to manage the 24/7 uninterrupted shipping process at all times. "The new crane is a G HMK 7608 B type 7 mobile port crane," said Alan Garcia, Konecranes Port Solutions Americas Sales Manager. "It has a maximum radius of 54 m and can serve bulk carriers below Cape Class.
It has an intelligent crane function and a maximum lifting capacity of 150 tons, making it versatile and can handle almost any type of dry bulk cargo. It is equipped with an external power source and can use the power of the port trunk line for ecologically efficient operations.
In order to work independently from this power source, Model 7 uses an on-board diesel engine that meets the latest emission standard EPA Tier 4f. "
Another Konecranes order came from Jamaica. Terminal operator Kingston Wharves (KWL) ordered an energy-saving Konecranes Gottwald Model 8 mobile harbour crane to serve-the big ship here is here again-the SuperPost Panamax. Kingston is developing into a major maritime logistics center in the Caribbean.
"Regional trade is expanding, so this order is part of a comprehensive strategic upgrade of our equipment and facilities," said Mark F. Williams, CEO of KWL.
The crane is a G HMK 8510 type 8 mobile port crane. The maximum radius of the service container ship is 61m; the maximum lifting capacity of 125 tons makes it flexible enough to handle general and heavy project cargo. This year Konecranes also sold its Gottwald mobile harbor cranes to Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Nigeria and Denmark.
Its 6th generation cranes are powered by cables, battery packs, on-board generators or hybrid combinations, and include smart management systems.
Liverpool is the only large container port facing west in England. It is now also a free port and is one of the eight created by the Minister of Finance Rishi Sunak's 2021 spring budget. (The other cities announced at the time were Thames, Solent, East Midlands, Freeport East (Felixstowe and Harwich), Plymouth and South Devon, Humber and Teesside.) In Freeport, imports can be entered through simplified customs documents without paying customs duties. The port has been making corresponding investments. “Our £400 million investment in Liverpool Container Terminal 2 was a huge driving factor,” said David Huck, MD, of Port Peel.
"It is the combination of the excellent facilities here and the free port status of the region that can really make a difference."
Both Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping have switched transatlantic container routes from ports in the south of the UK to Liverpool. It is estimated that the free trade zone in the Liverpool City area will contribute approximately 850 million pounds of total added value to the economy and create 14,000 jobs.
Most of Peel Port's investment is spent on equipment. In March of this year, as part of the deepwater terminal growth, five cantilever rail-mounted gantry (CRMG) cranes arrived from the sea; those, such as Florida cranes, were Chinese from ZPMC. They will complete 22 CRMG cranes in operation at Liverpool 2. The latest land-side automatic doors and vehicle reservation system are being installed. All of these will provide capacity for the ever-increasing volume of goods. Yes, the terminal will be able to handle Peel Ports happily described as "the world's largest container ship".
Peel Ports also invested in two new ship-to-shore container cranes from Liebherr for its Liverpool Terminal 1. The design uses high-strength steel and a truss boom and beam structure, which makes the crane lighter and reduces wheel load. This is a key consideration of the narrow span of the terminal and the structure of the wharf.
Again, the size of the ship is a consideration. The new crane will significantly enhance the Port of Liverpool’s ability to long-term customer Atlantic Container Lines. The company’s current generation of container/ro-ro ships is twice that of its predecessor, but uses the same footprint to allow passage through the entrance lock port. In order to carry the additional cargo, the height of the ship is much higher, so higher and state-of-the-art gantry cranes must be used to handle them. So there is Liebherr's new hardware.
In any port, unloading is just the beginning. Mobile machinery is as essential as quay cranes, and it is a potentially profitable market. Sany Heavy Industry delivered three SDCY90K6H4 empty container handlers to the Port of Tokyo in July. This is a breakthrough for the company: Sany Heavy Equipment and reach stackers have been operating globally for some time, but this is the first time it has entered Japan; the company’s goal is to include all Japanese ports in Sany within the next three years. Yizhong's commercial territory. These machines have a tare weight of 38.5 tons, are powered by Cummins engines, have a lifting capacity of 9 tons, and have a maximum stacking height of 6 8'6” containers.
Kalmar certainly has a long history in the field of mobile port machinery. In August of this year, they reached an agreement with Dublin Ferry Terminal (DFT) to expand the Kalmar AutoRTG system at the terminal with five new AutoRTG cranes over the next two years. DFT's current system consists of four Kalmar AutoRTG cranes with fully automatic stacking operations and remote truck handling, controlled by three remote consoles.
In addition, in August, Kalmar received a large order from the Port of Virginia for the fifth consecutive time. The order is for 18 eco-efficient hybrid shuttles. Fifteen of them will be delivered to the Norfolk International Terminal, and the other three will be delivered to the Virginia International Gateway. These are the main container terminals of the port, each capable of handling the largest container ships in Atlantic trade.
After the order is completed, by the end of June 2022, the customer will have 92 Kalmar hybrid shuttles operating at its terminal, as well as the diesel-hydraulic Kalmar Shuttle that was initially opened in 2007.
Progressive Media International Co., Ltd. Registered address: 40-42 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8EB, UK. Copyright 2021 Progressive Media International Limited. all rights reserved.