Ship to shore crane at heart of Grangemouth investment
The Port of Grangemouth, Scotland’s largest container facility, has placed an order with Liebherr for a new multimillion pound ship to shore container crane.
The move is part of a focus on securing Grangemouth as Scotland’s number one container port and providing the facilities required to service future container volume growth for export and import cargoes both in European and International Markets.
The new Liebherr crane can handle vessels with 14 containers stowed across the deck.
The crane will be designed and built in Liebherr’s facility in Killarney, south west Ireland, and then shipped into Grangemouth for onsite construction. The crane will be ready for use in autumn 2018 and will increase vessel turnaround times, capacity for growth and support existing operations. The new crane is also future proofed to enable taller straddle carriers to work underneath the crane legs.
As part of the investment programme at Grangemouth, the port welcomed three new ESC340 straddle carriers earlier this year increasing the fleet at the container terminal to 16. The port also added a new Hyster empty container handler to the fleet this year. The new straddles, empty container handler and the new Liebherr crane will increase the handling capacity for both conventional containers and reefers (refrigerated containers).
More than £6 billion worth of goods passes through Grangemouth each year including steel plate, timber, paper and equipment for the oil and gas industry.
