The three new quay cranes will join the six already operational cranes at KPCT, making it a total of nine STS cranes. In addition, six cutting edge automated stacking cranes (ASC) have recently joined the former 30 ASC’s at KPCT, and a further six will be commissioned later in Q1
The Super Post Panamax quay cranes were produced by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. in China with a cost of 28 million USD, and travelled overseas on especially built ships to Khalifa Port’s container terminal, the first semi-automated container terminal in the region. One STS crane is 126.5 meters high and weighs 1,932 tons. It has an outreach of 65 meters (22 containers) and a lifting capacity of 90 tons.
Commenting on this occasion, ADT’s chief Executive officer Martijn Van De Linde says: “ADT is taking a leading role in facilitating the continuous growth of trade between Abu Dhabi, the UAE and the world. This substantial infrastructure investment significantly increases port capacity and enables Abu Dhabi’s continued economic growth. Khalifa Port Container Terminal will not only accommodate the rapidly growing container traffic in Abu Dhabi, but also serves as an ‘enabler’ for new business generated by Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad), which aims to be one of the largest industrial zones in the world.”
Khalifa Port has been planned in a systematic way and the master plan includes well-constructed, structured phased developments. The first phase allows for an annual handling capacity of 2.5 million TEU (20-foot equivalent units) containers.
Khalifa Port opened for business in late 2012; it is expected to continue to add capacity in phases as needed, through to 2030. “As a result of an expected increase in activity over the next several years, the new port facility was developed to have an initial design capacity of 2.5m twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and 15m tonnes of general cargo,” Martijn van de Linde said. More than 1.3 million TEUs have now been handled at Khalifa Port container terminal, since it opened commercially in September 2012.
In December more than 100,000 TEUs passed through the port in just one month. These are very significant figures for KPCT and the highest number of containers ever handled in one month in the emirate. The ‘crane moves per hour (GMPH)’ is a key indicator for performance in a marine terminal and has improved no less than 35% since starting operations at the Khalifa port container terminal. As of last month Abu Dhabi Terminals announced productivity levels to have reached 34 GMPH on average. Considerable progress has also been achieved on the landside. Martijn van de Linde added; ‘truck turn around times’ are well ahead of what our modelling and operational simulations had calculate. We are turning Trucks under 13 minutes in the Container Terminal. “This adds real value to the trade and its service providers ” he said.
Khalifa Port is located on 2.7-sq-km of reclaimed land situated 4.5 km off the coast of Taweelah, a site 60 km north of the city of Abu Dhabi and 75 km south of Dubai. The port is located within an hour’s drive of a number of other major transport and logistics centres, including Abu Dhabi International Airport, Dubai International Airport. With a 4 km quay wall and 18 metres draft, Khalifa Port is capable of handling the largest ships in the world.