PD Ports has taken delivery of four new Konecranes rubber-tyred gantry cranes at its Teesport facility as part of its £16.7million expansion of the container terminals on site.
The cranes were manufactured in Finland and Poland for a total investment of around £5 million, are the first of their type to be supplied by Konecranes in the UK. They are intended to improve handling capacity as volumes continue to grow.
The 16-wheel cranes have a lifting capacity of 50 tonnes and can stack 1-over-5 containers high and 6 plus truck lane wide.
Mark Pearson, PD Ports project director: “By switching from the current handling system using reach stackers to these RTGs we can store many more boxes on the same area, due to their ability to create higher, wider container stacks. They also improve the number of containers handled per hour.”
PD Ports reckons Teesport’s container terminals’ volumes increased by 45 per cent in 2010 and capacity is currently being expanded from 235,000 to 450,000 TEU. The company’s overall strategy is to eventually expand port wide capacity to at least 650,000 TEU.