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Poland's DCT Gdansk commissions three new RTGs
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16 Dec 2008
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THE deepwater container terminal DCT Gdansk in Poland has commissioned three new Liebherr rubber-tyre gantry cranes (RTGs), bringing the total number of cranes at the terminal to eight by adding to the five already in service.
The three new cranes were acquired specifically to prepare the terminal for an increase in box volumes that was anticipated to come with the arrival of Denmark's Maersk Line, which switched its Polish hub from Gdynia to DCT Gdansk on December 1.
DCT Gdansk's CEO, Boris Wenzel, said in a company statement: "With the delivery of this new equipment, we are very confident of our ability to maintain the very high level of service our clients expect. Our vessel handling performance is already acknowledged to be amongst the best in the Baltic Sea region and we are confident that similar results will continue to be achieved when the number of vessel movements increases sharply this month (December)."
The new RTGs are identical to those already in operation. They are capable of working a five-high container stack and span seven rows of containers plus a vehicle lane. With all eight cranes operational, DCT can now stack up to 20,000 TEU in its import and export stacks.
According to DCT Gdansk general manager Fred Kamperman, the expanded RTG capability has boosted the terminal's ship handling capabilities. "When the cranes are used together to work a single ship, we have achieved handling rates of 40 plus containers/crane hour. This has resulted in ships achieving maximum handling rates of 100 moves per hour.
"For us to sustain these rates consistently without slowing down the turnaround times for road vehicles, whether working one ship with three cranes or two ships sharing the three cranes, we needed this extra RTG capacity."
To cope with the anticipated increase in container traffic, DCT Gdansk has also commissioned a number of other smaller machines including a reachstacker, terminal tractors and trailers, and some smaller lift trucks, the release added.
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