The Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) has brought the first of four new Neo-Panamax cranes online this week at the Garden City Terminal.
A Hapag Lloyd vessel with a capacity of 13,300 TEU was the first vessel to be served by the crane.
The introduction of the new Neo-Panamax cranes brings GPA’s operating fleet to 27 – more than any other single terminal in US.
GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch said: “Georgia’s ports are dedicated to staying a step ahead of market demand.
These investments ensure port users can grow their business and supply chain efficiencies in Savannah.”
The new cranes, designed by Konecranes, have a lift height of 152 feet and can reach across vessels 22 containers wide – allowing them to work with the largest ships that now call on the East Coast.
Read the “Tie-Down Design Considerations: STS Container Cranes” for further reading on STS cranes
Garden City Terminal, the largest single container terminal in the Western Hemisphere, will receive its second new crane will come online next week, with the next two to follow shortly after.
This is part of a plan to increase the fleet to 36 by 2020, allowing the port of move almost 1,300 containers per hour over a single dock.
The cranes also feature integral generators, allowing them to capture enough energy while lowering containers to power themselves for 18 minutes every working hour.
The new additions to the fleet, along with the deepening of the Savannah Harbour, will allow the port to accommodate the new larger vessels entering the industry.
The Panama Canal can now handle vessels with a capacity of 14,000 TEUs through expansion of its locks – the first of which, the CMA CGM Theodore Roosevelt, visited the Port of Savannah in September 2017.
CMA CGM Chief Operating Officer Ed McCarthy said: “For shipping lines and their customers, these larger vessels mean reduced fuel costs compared to operating multiple smaller ships.
In turn, this reduced consumption shrinks the environmental footprint of the global logistics network.”
