PD Teesport, part of PD Ports, Logistics and Shipping, has ordered three new Panamax class cranes as part of the £20m ($30m) expansion of the container handling facilities at Tees Dock, Middlesbrough in the UK.
In an order worth more than £6m, two new container cranes will be built by Liebherr Container Cranes for delivery in summer 2003, and will be assembled on site to be operational by autumn 2003. The cranes are more than 50m high, weigh 825t, and will be capable of lifting 44t containers at a rate of approximately 30 per hour.
The cranes have an outreach of 35m, which is enough to discharge and load a Panamax container ship. Panamax ships can hold 13 containers in width and carry up to 3,000+ containers on-board – a major increase on the size of ships currently received at Teesport, which carry up to 1,000 containers each.
PD Teesport has also taken delivery of a new mobile harbour crane from Gottwald Port Technology. The £1.6m ($2.5m) crane goes into operation this month. ‘This new mobile crane is the first important delivery in our 2003 expansion plan for the port,’ said PD Teesport managing director David Robinson. ‘Our recently announced £20m overall investment will double our capacity for handling containers by the end of 2003, and the delivery of our mobile crane means we are on target to meet our plans.’
