PSA Halifax unloaded two brand new mega Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes for its Atlantic Hub terminal on the south end of the Canadian port.
These new ultra-large cranes will be added to the five existing super-post-panamax cranes at the terminal, thus allowing PSA Halifax to handle the largest container vessels deployed along the North American East Coast.
This new equipment will also play an important role in expanding PSA Halifax’s capacity from 1.1 to 1.4 million TEUs by the end of the next year.
The new cranes left Shanghai on 7 September and arrived at the Port of Halifax after two months of sailing time. The new equipment, which is expected to be ready for live operations in January 2024, will now undergo six weeks of commissioning and testing.
“With an outreach of 24 container rows wide and a lift height of 52 meters above ground, the new STS cranes will add significant muscle and capacity to Atlantic Hub,” said Jan Van Mossevelde, CEO of PSA Halifax. “We will now have three STS cranes that are fully capable of handling vessels larger than 20,000 TEUs in size with no limitations. This means higher vessel productivity and faster turnaround times for mega vessels.”
Since 2019, PSA Halifax has invested almost CA$100 million (around US$70 million) in civil improvements and new container handling equipment, and aims to spend an additional CA$200 million (around US$140 million) over the next five years to complete the modernisation of both the Atlantic Hub and Fairview Cove terminals.
These investments include expanding the rail sidings at the Atlantic Hub terminal from 8,000 feet (around 2,438 metres) to 14,000 feet (around 4,267 metres), adding two new railmounted gantry cranes (RMGs) to load and unload the trains as well as eight new electric rubber-tyred gantry cranes (eRTGs).
Captain Allan Gray, president and CEO of the Halifax Port Authority, stated, “Increasing terminal efficiency is a key focus area for all of us at the Port of Halifax and these new STS cranes will bring us closer to achieving that collective goal.”
