Port operator Dragados SPL has ordered eight more rubber-tyred-gantry (RTG) cranes from KCI Konecranes as part of an expansion project at the Spanish Port of Valencia (Forkliftaction.com News #25).

Dragados owns and operates the Maritima Valenciana terminal at the Port of Valencia, on the Spanish eastern Mediterranean coastline. The EUR9 million (USD11.5 million) order adds to Maritima Valenciana's three existing Konecranes RTGs.

Konecranes sales & product manager Aku Lehtinen said Dragados was expanding the terminal because container traffic had increased.

"They need to expand quay and yard capacity ... for this expansion Dragados has purchased two ship-to-shore cranes and eight RTGs," Lehtinen said. The expansion would be completed in 2007.

Konecranes has sold more than 70 RTGs to Mediterranean customers, including Maritima Valenciana and Terminales del Sudeste, at Malaga, owned by Dragados.

Lehtinen said Dragados ordered its first Konecranes RTGs in 2004.