AN INTERESTING comparison from a reader - Hong Kong v SA at the great game of gantry cranes. In its latest play, Hong Kong International Terminals (HIT) has set a new record for vessel productivity at the terminal. On July 17, the terminal achieved a rate of 272-moves-per-hour, handling Evergreen Marine’s ship Ever Repute and eclipsed its previous record of 236 m-p-h set in April 2000. Playing with his calculator, our reader worked this out at 54.4-moves/gantry/hour if five gantries were used on the vessel, or 68-m/g/h if it was four. “With SA Port Operations (Sapo) chasing 16-moves/ gantry/hour to have the port congestion charge lifted,” said our reader, “they would need to have 17 gantries working. “And can you imagine fitting 17 gantries next to a vessel?” He also points out that that is more than the total gantries at any SA harbour. To beat Hong Kong, the SA team would have to achieve the impossible.
