On Friday morning, 20 October, the approximately 13,400 TEU-capacity Cosco Netherlands was the first ship to be processed by the five new Liebherr container gantry cranes at the HHLA Container Terminal Tollerort (CTT), which are equipped to handle ships with a capacity of more than 20,000 standard containers (TEU). Three of these high-performance gantry cranes have been put into service at Tollerort in the last few days. Two identical gantry cranes have been processing mega-ships at berth 5 since November 2016.
“Processing the Cosco Netherlands was a first test of our new mega-ship gantry cranes, which they passed with flying colours. The five gantry cranes are very reliable and perform as expected. Berth 5 is now perfectly equipped to efficiently process the largest ships in the world,” says CTT’s Managing Director, Dr. Thomas Koch. From Friday morning until Saturday night the mega-ship gantry cranes discharged and loaded approximately 7,000 TEU onto the ship.
The number of ultra large container vessels calling at the Port of Hamburg has risen steeply over the past two years. In the first half of 2017, ships with a capacity of 18,000 TEU or more called at the Port 54 times – more than five times as much as in the first half of 2015. For the class of vessels with capacities between 14,000 and 17,999 TEU, the number of calls has more than doubled.
“HHLA made the necessary investment at the right time to make its container terminals fit for the largest vessels in the world, which are increasingly being deployed by the shipping alliances. Our employees have the training and motivation to reliably handle even large volumes. We have three highly efficient berths in Hamburg that are able to process the largest class of vessels. This is not only beneficial to our customers – it also increases the attractiveness of the entire Port of Hamburg,” says HHLA Executive Board Member Jens Hansen.
The five mega-ship gantry cranes at CTT have a jib length of 74 m and a lifting height of 51.5 m above the quay wall. They are designed for container ships with 24 transverse container rows and can discharge and load two 20-foot containers simultaneously when operating in twin mode. The increased lifting height of the gantry cranes enables them to handle up to nine containers placed on top of one another on deck. Each container gantry crane weighs 1,500 tonnes and can handle a maximum payload of 63 tonnes. Unlike other container gantry cranes, the new gantry cranes at CTT have lattice jibs, giving them a comparatively low overall weight and making them optimally suited to the requirements of berth 5 at CTT.
