APM Terminals announced that the first three, of a total of 12 advanced remote controlled ship-to-shore (STS) cranes, have departed China and will be delivered on February 15th to the new APM Terminals MedPort Tangier, Morocco terminal.
The super post-Panamax cranes were built by ZPMC in Shanghai and can accommodate 20,000 TEU vessels, thus giving the facility an annual container capacity of 5 million TEUs.
“Our goal is to use proven technology to create high productivity for our clients on one of the world’s most strategically important trade lanes on the Strait of Gibraltar,” APM Terminals MedPort Tangier Managing Director Dennis Olesen said.
The cranes will start operation in 2019, with the new deep-water terminal at the Tanger- Med II port complex being equipped with both conventional and fully-automated operations and an automated truck gate system.
Namely, the STS cranes will be fully automated, including a remote crane operator safely located in an office building near the quay, and will include a second trolley, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, aiming to increase efficiency for APM Terminals’ liner customers.