APMT raises crane height at Pier 400 in Los Angeles

Global port terminal operator APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Danish shipping conglomerate AS Moller Maersk, will invest $40 million in cranes at the Pier 400 facility in the Port of Los Angeles in an effort to prepare for ultra-large containerships.    APM Terminals (APMT) will invest $40 million to raise and upgrade container handling cranes at its Pier 400 facility in the Port of Los Angeles, the company said in a statement.
   The global port terminal operator subsidiary of Danish shipping conglomerate AS Moller Maersk has raised the first of ten ship-to-shore (STS) cranes at the terminal by 33 feet, making it the tallest port crane in North America.
   APMT, which is also installing Light Emitting Diode (LED) illumination on the STS cranes, said it expects the first to be ready for vessel operations in the next few months. The LED lighting system will improve operator visibility and the accuracy of the cranes’ Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs, as well as using 60 percent less energy than conventional lighting systems.
   The crane heightening project is designed to prepare for regular calls from ultra-large containerships from Asia, capable of carrying up to 20,000 TEUs. By contrast, the largest vessels currently serving at the Port of Los Angeles clock in at around 13,000 TEUs.
   Following successful test calls at Pier 400 by CMA CGM’s 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin in December 2015, the French ocean carrier announced plans to deploy the massive vessel, along with five sister ships, permanently in the transpacific trade between Asia and the U.S. West Coast. But those plans were scrapped in April and thus far, no other carrier has indicated it plans to deploy such large ships in the trade.
   “The Los Angeles crane extension project, representing an investment of USD 40 million keeps APM Terminals at the forefront of infrastructure improvement and upgrades in U.S. port operations,” APMT CEO Kim Fejfer said. “Our aim is to enable global trade through the safest, most efficient technology available for reliable port operations.”
   At 484 acres, APM Terminals Pier 400 Los Angeles, which opened in 2002, operates with a total of 14 STS cranes and is the largest single proprietary terminal in the world, according to APMT. It features a 65-acre on-dock rail facility, which includes an intermodal yard, storage tracks and five miles of working track, and can accommodate four double stack trains simultaneously.
   The terminal handled 2.48 million TEUs of containerized cargo in 2015.