New STS cranes ready for action soon

Two new twin-lift Liebherr ship-to-shore (STS) cranes are currently being assembled at the west end of the North Pier of the Port of Durban, and are due to come on stream on the East Pier early next month, Transnet Port Terminals told FTW at a media briefing. Purchased to replace two old cranes that have reached the end of their useful life, these new units are designed to handle megacontainerships up to a capacity of 17 000 TEUs, according to Shane Narainsamy, TPT regional manager for KZN containers (maintenance and projects). Each has a height of 43 metres and a reach of 52m. This reach will enable the cranes to work the equivalent of 19 containers across the deck. The two cranes at the East Pier were due to be “slipped”, as Narainsamy described it, on September 13-15. To minimise the disruption period in the Pier 2 stacking area during this crane movement, the new cranes were to be slipped from the erection site to the East Pier while the old cranes were to be concurrently slipped to the end of the North Pier where they will be disassembled. The commissioning is planned for October 4 when the new cranes are handed over to operations. The project budget is R340 million. INSERT 19 The number of containers the cranes will be able to work across the deck.