“It is certainly a very important date in the history of the BCT. Not only will the new cranes replace the old ones damaged two years ago, they will also increase our vessel handling capacity significantly. It is another step towards serving large ocean ships in Gdynia,” says Krzysztof Szymborski, CEO of the Baltic Container Terminal.
The QCs are part of a USD 58 million investment programme, which was initiated back in 2012. Co-funded by the European Union and the Infrastructure and Environment Operational Program, the investment covers the purchase of re-loading equipment including railway gantry cranes, straddle carriers and container trailers. It also involved the surface replacement of storage yards and the rollout of specialised terminal IT systems.
The cranes were supplied and manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co Ltd. Each crane can service 19-bay wide container vessels, which in practice are ships with 13,000 TEU capacities.
Meanwhile, retrofitting of the BCT railway terminal has also been carried out in coordination with the Management Board of the Gdynia Port Authority. The expansion will facilitate the simultaneous servicing of full length trainloads. The investment programme will increase BCT’s overall capacity by 50 percent.