World's largest gantry cranes installed at Dubai Port

There will be an additional 14 Rubber Tyred Gantries (RTG's).

The Chinese-manufactured gantries, the largest of their kind in the world and the first of their type to be installed in the Middle East, can handle up to 45 standard containers per hour and will be up-an-running around the beginning of February.

'These state-of-the-art gantries are characterised by their speed and flexibility in handling containers. They were manufactured by ZPMC in China and can move four 20-foot containers (TEUs) and two 40-foot containers to or from a vessel simultaneously,' explained Mr Jamal Majid Bin Thania, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Ports Authority (DPA).

'Dubai has become increasingly important as an international trade hub, which has necessitated the upgrading and development of its ports to enable them to handle the huge amounts of cargo that are coming through the region,' he added.

This, the first delivery, forms part of the agreement between DPA and ZPMC in 2004 to supply 20 gantry cranes and 70 Rubber Tyred Gantries (RTGs) to be used for the transfer of containers inside container yards. The technical team at DPA installed the gantries directly on berth No.18 where the water reaches a depth of 17m.

'Due to the dramatic growth in container movement internationally, ports all over the world are under extreme pressure to accomplish high levels of productivity. In order to meet these demands, we need to be able to handle huge container vessels, which is why there is a need to employ such advanced crane technology, as well as to adopt top-of-the-line systems to handle these increasing volumes of cargo more effectively,' said Bin Thania.

The second batch of 6 gantry cranes will be delivered within the next three months and a further ten will be delivered in the period up to mid 2006.

As the installation of the gantry system in Dubai is the first of its kind, all ports around the world are waiting for the model to prove its effectiveness and speed of operation before copying the system in other parts of the world.

ZPMC cranes are characterised by their vast size, reaching a height of 41m from ground level, and can be connected to and controlled from the operations room. The IT technical team can also use fibre-optics to send information and control operations.

The cranes' arms can reach up to 25 containers aligned horizontally on a ship's deck, and can bear up to 80 tons in weight. The cranes can load and unload super vessels that have a capacity of up to 12,000 containers.

It is expected that productivity levels of container-handling in the Jebel Ali port alone will increase to 7 million containers in 2005 from 5.2 million in 2004.