Port of Tauranga welcomes new crane

[David Pratt]

I thought this excerpt from a message from Mr Mark Cairns, Chief Executive, Port of Tauranga Limited, New Zealand might be of interest: "Port of Tauranga's fifth ship-to-shore Liebherr gantry crane arrived from Ireland on 19 May 2009. The vessel Beluga Fraternity has been especially chartered to deliver the crane to Tauranga. The crane will then be assembled on-site at the Tauranga Container Terminal, behind the berth face, and will be skidded into position for final commissioning. The crane is scheduled to be in operation by July 2009. The new crane has been specifically designed to handle the larger 5,000-7,000 TEU container ships, with an out-reach of 48 metres. This makes it capable of handling container ships 18 containers wide (the largest container ships currently plying New Zealand waters are 13 containers wide). The crane will provide a lifting capacity of 60 tonnes under a telescopic twin-lift spreader and up to 80 tonnes under the hook beam. Mark Cairns, Port of Tauranga Chief Executive, says that the new crane is an integral part of the Port's strategic planning, in preparation for accommodating container vessels up to 7,000 TEUs. "In addition, we have completed the assessment of environmental effects for our harbour dredging project, to be able to widen and deepen our harbour channels and sitting basins to 14.5 metres draught at low water" Port of Tauranga, which is New Zealand's biggest export port  has a very good website at:  http://www.port-tauranga.co.nz. Photos of the arrival of the Beluga Fraternity can be found on the Ship Photo Search.

[Robbie]

It looks like half her voyage has been recorded on this website. Most have probably already looked at this but here is a link to a photo of her on the Kiel Canal. I must admit I did find it interesting to see she did not come over here made up already, I would have imagined it would have been a lot easier and they could have started using it right away!

http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=867183.

It will be interesting to see the new crane next to the other four for a good comparison of size once she has been completed.

[David Pratt]

Hi Robbie
Thanks for your comments and the photo. I guess that bringing it all that way 'ready made' would have been too unseaworthy as it is rather large. They told me that building it will be similar to building a large piece of Meccano! I will of course post a picture as soon as it is operational. Regards, David

[Robbie]

You are right it would be a difficult to ship a crane that big over to Tauranga. I look forward to seeing a photo of the new crane with the other 4 for a comparison and also will be interesting to see her working a ship. I will probably be back up in Tauranga in about 6 months so will have to go have a look at it in real life to grasp the true size!

Rgds Robbie

[sailorT]

Shipping of complete cranes much larger than this one is very common - see http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=907253 If you get cranes from ZPMC of Shanghai, this is how they arrive, but the Liebherr plant in Killarney does not have the facilities to load complete cranes onto such large ships, so they arrive in bits. The new super post-panamax cranes for Southampton arrived from Ireland like this, watch this video of their construction at the bottom of this page - http://www.dpworldsouthampton.com/