South Australia’s container terminal operator, Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal, has placed orders for two Post-Panamax Liebherr cranes as part of a 30-year strategic plan to boost service levels at its Port Adelaide Terminal. With each crane featuring a baseline load-rate capability of 35 containers per hour, significant productivity upsides from the $24m investment are expected.
Peter Cheers, General Manager of Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal said, “We conducted rigorous supplier evaluations as part of our procurement process and assessed this in-line with our long-run planning for the Terminal. The Post-Panamax Liebherr cranes were the best match for our requirements and will allow us to maximise the flow-on benefits for our customers.”
Each crane will have a maximum lifting capacity of 80 tonnes using a special cargo beam, and the ability to lift multiple containers simultaneously. Substantial gains for customers from a raft of safety and efficiency features are also anticipated. These include a central monitoring and diagnostic system for maintenance and an ‘intelligent slow-down’ feature for picking up and lowering containers. Ultimately the expectation is that vessel turnaround times will be up to 25% faster than those currently available at the facility. The new cranes will join five newly requisitioned Noell straddle carriers, which are set to arrive at Port Adelaide in April 2014. An additional 7500 square metres of hard-stand at the Terminal is expected to come on-stream as early as March 2014 in readiness for the arrival of the new cranes and straddles.
“Investment in these cranes forms part of a suite of scheduled upgrades. Our aim is to put Port Adelaide on the map as a world class container facility servicing the hinterland. Increased efficiency, through reduced vessel time in port, will enable us to achieve our projected annual throughput target of over 700,000 TEUs,” said Mr Cheers.
The Post-Panamax cranes, which are being supplied by Liebherr Container Cranes in Ireland, are expected to arrive in South Australia in late 2014. Once fully commissioned they will be deployed during the first quarter of 2015.
About Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal
Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal was formed in July 2012 when Flinders Port Holdings gained 100% ownership of the Adelaide Container Terminal from DP World South Australia. Having rebranded the Terminal as Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal (FACT), the move was a natural progression for the new owner and parent company Flinders Port Holdings which already had a 40% shareholding in the Terminal. Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal’s strategic goal is to be recognised as the most efficient and customer focussed container terminal operator in Australia.
