Finnish company Konecranes has signed a deal to supply 13 container handling machines for Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd.
The order consists of 10 eight-wheel rubber tyred gantry cranes (RTGs), two masted lift trucks for stacking empty containers, and one 37t fork-lift truck. The delivery of the units will start this year, and continue into 2006. The order includes an option for six additional RTGs.
Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd recently launched a €40million investment programme aimed at raising productivity from 1.46 million TEU (twenty foot equivalent units) to two million TEU over the next three years.
The investment will ensure that the port is geared up “towards handling the largest container vessels afloat, thus securing a larger share of the Mediterranean transhipment market”.
The eight-wheel all-electric RTGs are designed to stack an extra layer of containers when compared to the ones currently available at Malta Freeport. They have a 50t lifting capacity with a twin-lift possibility and are capable of stacking containers one-over-five high and six plus truck lane wide.
Malta Freeport is owned by CMA-CGM, the world’s fifth biggest container traffic operator.
Meanwhile, KCI Konecranes has posted second quarter pre-tax profits of €0.9m compared with €5m in the same quarter a year before. The company claimed that the decline related to new accounting standards that KCI Konecranes has started to follow.
