Konecranes VLC Corporation has won a contract worth more than $20m to supply “one of the world’s largest cranes” to Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, USA.
The shipyard has been contracted to build a pair of huge cruise ships which will be the largest liners ever built in the USA. To carry out this work the yard needs a 600t-capacity goliath crane which will stand about 100m high and span more than 125m. Some 96 wheels will carry the crane down a 700m runway and it will have three trollies. The crane is to be delivered in the first quarter of 2001.
Konecranes has delivered similar cranes to Halla’s Samho Shipyard in Korea and Kværner Masayard’s shipyard in Turku, Finland.
A second order won by the company is for two super post panamax container cranes to be delivered to the Port of Aarhus in Denmark in March 2001. The 61t-capacity cranes will be able to load and unload post panamax sized ships 18 containers wide. Konecranes VLC is already building a smaller panamax crane for the Port of Aarhus under a contract won last year. This crane is due to be shipped in January.
• Rival overhead crane manufacturer Morris Material Handling has established a sepcialised worldwide sales team for engineered cranes. Bob Greening, Garry Otto, HK Soh, Ray Greene, Don Sedushak and Mike Elez are now responsible for sales of heavy cranes throughout the world.
