With just a week to go before the Grand Inauguration of its flagship Khalifa Port on December 12th, Abu Dhabi Ports Company has announced orders for three more of the largest cranes in the world.
ADPC has placed fresh orders with the ZPMC yard in Shanghai, China, for three new STS (ship to shore) cranes, among the largest in the world. The orders were placed on November 5th. and the three new cranes are scheduled to become operational at the Port on March 1st, 2014. They will join the six other ZPMC STS cranes currently serving the semi-automated state of the art container terminal at Khalifa Port.
In addition, ADPC has ordered 12 new ASC (Automated Stacking Cranes) for the container yard from Konecranes, who supplied the current 30 ASC cranes onsite. The first six are scheduled to be delivered by January, 2014, and the remaining six, two months later.
Joost Achterkamp, Terminal Area Projects Manager, Projects Unit, ADPC , commented: “ I am thoroughly delighted to confirm these orders as they will help the container terminal turn around bigger volumes in the future. The yard is nearly fully occupied at 70% of current capacity. It will be a fantastic sight to see not six but nine STS cranes towering above Khalifa Port. All of the team is very proud of our progress and hard work at the Port .”
There was more good news for Khalifa Port with the announcement that all of Mina Zayed’s container traffic has now moved across to it, ahead of the original Q1, 2013 deadline. The same company, Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT), is operating the TEU container operation at Khalifa Port’s container terminal as they did at Mina Zayed.
[mappress]
Press Release, December 10, 2012; Image: adpc