A Gottwald harbour crane in Puerto Rico.

Gottwald Port Technology's orders from Latin America increased significantly in 2006.

For the past decade, Gottwald has sold five to eight harbour cranes annually in Latin America.

But last year 12 units, including one used crane, of the 82 cranes sold worldwide were ordered by new and existing Latin American customers.

Seven of the cranes sold to Latin America were Gottwald's Generation 5 harbour cranes, launched in the northern hemisphere spring of 2006.

Gottwald senior sales manager Andreas Moeller said he was pleased with the customers' choice.

"We can look back on more than 10 years of successful operation in this region. The phenomenal success of the Generation 5 worldwide continues the tradition of our highly popular Generation 4 that was phased out partially last year but still sold well," he said. Gottwald has sold "several hundred" of Generation 4 cranes, a company spokesperson said.

Last year's orders from Latin America were for two G HMK 7408 and three G HMK 7608 cranes for Puerto Rico, two G HMK 6407 and two HMK 300 E cranes for Brazil, two HMK 300 E cranes for Mexico and one HMK 300 E crane for Chile.

In total, Gottwald has sold more than 80 cranes to the region.