Cargotec has won an order for two rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes from Cosco Pacific subsidiary Jinjiang Pacific Ports Development (JPPDC).

Dennis Lue, Cargotec director of port cranes Asia, says this is the company's first RTG order in China in about five years.

"Our success in winning the contract against tough competition from both Chinese and overseas manufacturers shows how increasingly competitive our RTGs are becoming as a result of the efforts we have made recently to deliver forward-looking technology at a reasonable cost," Lue explains.

JPPDC, which operates a two-berth facility in Weitou Port in Fujian Province, China, has contracted the company to supply the Kalmar E-One2 RTG cranes, which are slated for delivery in May 2012. The all-electric RTGs can stack containers one-over-five high, span six container rows plus a roadway, and have a 41 T lift capacity.

Cosco Pacific is in the process of a second phase investment to expand the container yard, to increase the terminal's throughput. Container throughput at the terminal is expected to reach 400,000 TEUs next year and will achieve 800,000 TEUs in 2015 after the second phase expansion is implemented. The RTG order will support the infrastructure expansion project.

JPPDC is already a Cargotec customer, having several Kalmar reach-stackers at its landside operations.

Cosco Pacific, which controls an 80% stake in JPPDC, is ranked by Drewry Shipping Consultants as the fifth-largest container terminal operator in the world. Besides a network of domestic container terminal facilities in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and the southeast coast regions of China, Cosco Pacific has investments in Singapore, Antwerp, Port Said in Egypt and Piraeus in Greece.

The company grew from operating two berths in 1995 to 145 berths at the end of 2010. The facilities had a combined throughput of about 48.5 million TEUs last year.

Cargotec has taken steps to establish itself in China. It has invested significantly in its Lingang assembly plant near Shanghai. The factory, near the Yang Shan port development, has delivered forklifts, empty container handlers, reach-stackers, terminal tractors and RTGs to Chinese ports.

The value of the order is confidential.