The arrival of two state-of-the-art cranes worth £10.5 million will enable ABP’s Hull Container Terminal to handle double the volume of trade by increasing capacity to more than 400,000 units per year.
The giant 600 tonne and 50 metre high ship-to-shore gantry cranes made an impressive entrance as they arrived fully assembled through the lock gates on Thursday, 15th February.
The new cranes are part of a recent £15 million investment which also includes the purchase of equipment such as reach stackers and tug trailers, and the creation of 9,000 square metres of new storage for customers.
ABP has committed to invest a total of £50 million in its container terminals on the Humber - located in Immingham and Hull - in response to continued growth in demand.
ABP Humber Director, Simon Bird, said: “This major investment underlines our confidence in the future as growth in our container business looks set to continue in the years ahead.
“Across the Humber our container terminals have seen a 41% growth in volumes since 2013. Our ambition is to build on this success by continuing to deliver state-of-the-art equipment and first class infrastructure to benefit our customers and the wider economy.”
The Liebherr cranes are bespoke made and took around 11 months to build in Ireland. They were shipped in three days via a special 168 meter vessel called HHL Lagos which has a heavy lift crane on board to carefully place the new cranes on the quayside crane rails. The cranes will be fully operational by the beginning of April 2018.
Hull’s 10-acre container terminal is the third largest short sea container port on the east coast and during August 2017 10 new employees were taken on in preparation for the increased demand of the 24-hour operation.
ABP’s four ports on the Humber (Grimsby, Goole, Immingham and Hull) handle around 13% of all of the UK’s seaborne trade. Every year the ports handle £75 billion worth of trade, more than the Mersey, Tyne and Tees combined.
Source: ABPorts