Hutchinson Ports upgrades cranes at Barcelona terminal

The height of three of the terminal’s 11 cranes was raised from nearly 138 feet to 152 feet in order to accommodate ships loaded with containers stowed up to 11-high on deck.    Hutchison Ports’ Barcelona Europe South Terminal (BEST) in Spain has increased its ability to handle the world’s largest containerships by raising the height of three ship-to-shore gantry cranes at the semi-automated terminal, the port operator revealed Monday.
   The height of three of the terminal’s 11 cranes was raised from 42 meters (137.7 feet) to 47 meters (152.2 feet). The upgraded cranes give BEST the ability to accommodate containerships loaded with containers stowed up to 11-high on deck.
   “The move reflects current market trends towards an ever-increasing number of 18,000-plus-TEU vessels with greater stack heights for containers loaded above deck,” Hutchison Ports explained in a statement.
   BEST, which is Hutchison Ports’ first semi-automated terminal, can serve multiple mega-vessels simultaneously. It has an eight-track railway facility, and the biggest on-dock railway terminal of any port in the Mediterranean, connecting it to traffic coming from, and destined for, Southern Europe.
   As one of the most technologically advanced port development projects in Spain, BEST is the only terminal in the Mediterranean with 11 cranes capable of handling the largest ships in operation.
   “Having 11 cranes on the port, and increasing the height of three of these cranes will give us greater flexibility to accommodate the largest ship size categories,” BEST CEO Guillermo Belcastro said. “Thanks to this new investment, BEST has strengthened its strategic position as the most efficient terminal in the Mediterranean, offering productivities by crane at over 40 mph in a sustained manner.”