The Port of Savannah acquired four Super Post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes on 24 August increasing the crane fleet at Garden City Terminal to 34 machines following the retirement and recycling of four older cranes.
The all-electric cranes were designed by Konecranes of Finland and came on the vessel BigLift Barentsz.
When fully assembled, two of the cranes will stand 90 meters tall and the other two will be 93.2 feet tall. The cranes’ reach will be 22 and 24 containers wide, respectively.
The taller cranes will be delivered at Garden City Terminal’s Berth 1, while the others will be placed at the terminal’s upriver end, at Berth 9.
In addition, GPA acquired four cranes in February to work at the recently rebuilt Berth 1, which can now serve vessels with a capacity of 16,000+ TEUs. The cranes and enhanced dock boost berth productivity at Garden City Terminal by 25% or 1.5 million TEUs of yearly capacity.
The new equipment is part of GPA’s US$1.9 billion infrastructure upgrade plan to meet future supply chain demands.
“The ratio of GPA’s economic impact equates to roughly one job per nine TEUs moved,” stated Stacy Watson, director of economic and industrial development at GPA.
He further added, “By expanding our annual capacity by 3 million TEUs over the next three years, GPA is also increasing its job-supporting capability by more than 300,000 jobs for Georgians.”