APMT invests in automation for Tanger-Med facility

APM Terminals (APMT) has ordered 12 remote-controlled ship-to-shore cranes and 32 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes to handle containers at the APMT MedPort Tangier facility now under construction at the Tanger-Med II port complex.    APM Terminals (APMT) has ordered 12 remote-controlled ship-to-shore cranes and 32 automated rail-mounted gantry cranes to handle containers at the APMT MedPort Tangier facility now under construction at the Tanger-Med II port complex, located about 30 miles east of Tangiers.
   The terminal will open in 2019 and will be one of the most highly automated port facilities in the world.
   APMT already operates an existing container terminal at Tanger-Med.
   The new terminal will be able to handle 20,000-TEU vessels. It will have a capacity for 5 million TEUs, increasing the Tanger-Med complex’s overall capacity to over nine million TEUs.
   Tanger-Med is one of the major transshipment hubs in the world, connecting cargo and vessels operating to and from Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Many global manufacturers are also locating manufacturing and warehouse operations in Morocco because of its central location near the Suez Canal and the port’s modern infrastructure.
   APMT said the large cranes, which will have optical character recognition technology built into the spreader bar to identify containers, will be delivered at the end of 2017 by Shanghai-based equipment manufacturer ZPMC. The rubber-tired gantry cranes for yard work will be built by Austrian-based Künz and divided among 16 container yard blocks.