APM Terminals, which is at the Port of Los Angeles’s Pier 400 and is the largest container port terminal in the Western Hemisphere, recently receieved a new shipment of manned electric cranes.
“These cranes are built to handle some of the largest ships on the ocean today, and those still being built,” APM representative Kevin Doell said. “Their extended reach allows operators to access top rows without switching cranes, saving up to 14 hours per vessel and enhancing efficiency for even the largest container ships.”
APM, which opened at POLA in 2002, is a 507-acre terminal facility that handles 4.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units annuall, according to its website; TEU is the industry’s standard unit of measurement for cargo.
The cranes arrived to the port on Wednesday, Nov. 13, after a monthlong journey across the Pacific Ocean on the carrier vessel Zhen Hua.
The machinery stands 294-feet tall, each with a boom that extends over 223-feet — enabling it to reach 23 containers across. They’re designed to service cargo vessels holding up to 18,000 TEUs.
The cranes are able to lift up to 100 tons, Doell said, and have the capacity to carry out more than 100,000 cargo lifts throughout their more than 20-year lifespan.
“This capacity is essential as global trade continues to expand, and ships grow larger for efficiency,” Doell said. “The cranes will give Pier 400 greater flexibility to handle a variety of vessel sizes.”
With the new cranes, APM will be able to operate at full capacity on larger ships, Doell said, while freeing up smaller cranes to be used for other vessels.
The cranes will add to APM’s existing fleet of cranes, for 19 in total.
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