The RTGs will play a significant role in boosting capacity at the port, which is planning to increase container throughput from 210,000 to 450,000 TEUs annually.

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has been awarded a contract to supply eight zero-emission rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes, featuring new Kalmar SmartPort automation technology, to the Port of Oslo in Sydhavna, Norway.

The order, valued at approximately EUR17 million (USD23 million), will see all eight machines delivered over an 18-month period.

The RTGs will play a significant role in boosting capacity at the port, which is planning to increase container throughput from 210,000 to 450,000 TEUs annually.

The Sjursøya Container Terminal in Sydhavna (south harbour) has been designed specifically to operate around RTG, straddle and shuttle carrier systems. The Port of Oslo already uses Kalmar equipment, and in 2002 took delivery of the world's first zero-emission RTGs with cable reel supply at its Ormsund Container Terminal.

According to Kalmar, the all-electric, 50 T capacity cranes will be the most advanced in the world. The cranes will be the first to benefit from the automated positioning functionality, realised within the Terminal Logistic System software platform already used with Kalmar automated stacking cranes (ASC), Kalmar AutoStradsTM and AutoShuttlesTM.

Svein Olav Lunde, director of technical operation and maintenance at the Port of Oslo, says: "Kalmar won this important tender ... based on a systematic evaluation. As the Port of Oslo is located in a highly populated urban area, environmental considerations, especially energy consumption and noise level, were important issues in the evaluation process."

Separately, Kalmar has retained a three-year contract to provide complete service and maintenance support for two Kalmar ship-to-shore (STS) cranes operated by SCA Logistics BV at its Rotterdam Terminal in the Netherlands.

Cargotec's sales totalled EUR 3.3 billion (USD4.5 billion) in 2012 and it employs approximately 10,000 people.