Construction of a new dock in the Belgian river port of Antwerp is on hold at the moment. With the nearby village of Doel already impacted by a nuclear power station, a new dock on the other side has certain environmental implications, the assessment of which, it later turned out, was not not carried out in quite the way that the laws dictate.
The developers, however, expect the legal processes to be complete sometime around September and, if all goes well for them, completion and opening of the port should take place towards the end of 2003.
Belgium’s leading stevedoring company Hessenatie and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) of Switzerland are developing the container terminal on the left bank of the river Scheldt. It is based on a new concept, designed to achieve high productivity by making ship-to-shore cycle times independent of the availability of transfer vehicles.
Along the 1,260m quay will be 10 super post-Panamax cranes supplied by Fantuzzi-Reggiane. In the stacking area will be 15m-high overhead bridge cranes (OBCs). Travelling at 240m/min, these are much quicker in long travel than the more usual rail-mounted gantry cranes (RMGs), according to Hessenatie. With the bridge crane the twin-girder bridge travels along the top of a fixed structure, whereas with an RMG, the whole structure travels along rails on the ground.
The prototype bridge crane was supplied by Demag. The overhead bridge crane system is also used in Singapore, except there it is remotely operated. At the MSC-Hessenatie terminal in Antwerp it will be fully automatic. The prototype unit features a vertical stabilising column running through the trolley to the spreader, to enable exact positioning of boxes in automatic operations.
Hessenatie needed a fast method of transferring containers between the ship-to-shore cranes and the stacking area. Speed is crucial, and terminal tractors were deemed too slow. Working with Swedish manufacturer Kalmar, Hessenatie developed a high speed/low capacity type of straddle carrier, which Kalmar has registered as the Shuttle Carrier.
The Shuttle Carrier stacks containers only two high and so is lighter than Kalmar’s other straddle carriers. This improves acceleration, braking and running speeds. A low centre of gravity also enables it to take corners faster, making it more manoeuvrable.
Key to the concept is double buffering. The ship-to-shore cranes can place containers directly onto the quay without having to wait for the Shuttle Carriers to arrive. The crane operators can concentrate on unloading the ship as quickly as possible and build up a buffer on the quayside. Similarly, the stacking cranes work to and from buffer stacks, so there is never any crane waiting time.
Hessenatie has been testing the concept at its terminal in the Delwaide dock. Given the delays to construction, the tests have been extensive. Kalmar says of its new product: ‘During the test period the Shuttle Carrier has been transporting and stacking containers with excellent reliability and has achieved impressive cycle times.’ The manufacturer says that the Shuttle Carrier is just as able to work between quay and stack areas served by RMGs and rubber-tyred gantry cranes, as well as OBCs, and it is now marketing the product to ports around the world.
