The PHA order includes four Super Post-Panamax STS cranes.

Konecranes has received a USD56 million order from the Port of Houston Authority (PHA) in the US. The order includes four Super Post-Panamax STS (ship-to-shore) cranes and three RTG (rubber-tyred gantry) cranes.

These will be the biggest Konecranes STS cranes ever built. The STS cranes will be shipped to PHA's Barbours Cut Terminal in late 2014 and supplied in the first quarter of 2015, while the RTGs will be delivered to Bayport Terminal in the northern spring of 2014.

PHA is the largest container port in the Gulf of Mexico. It is responsible for eight cargo terminals and one cruise terminal along the Houston Ship Channel.

Konecranes delivered its first RTGs to PHA in 2003. PHA currently has 49 Konecranes RTGs in its fleet.

"We have a long history with Konecranes," says Roger Guenther, the Port Authority's deputy executive director of operations. "We expect the cranes to be of the highest quality and productive for decades to come."

The Barbours Cut Container Terminal is presently undergoing a major modernisation project which will allow for continued efficient container and cargo handling in the terminal.

The Bayport Terminal opened in January 2007. When fully developed, the state-of-the-art terminal will have seven container berths with the capacity to handle 2.3 million TEUs a year.

The STS cranes ordered are semi-automated and have a lifting capacity of 66 T, an outreach of 64 m (210 ft.) and twin-lift operation for maximum handling capacity.

Separately, Konecranes introduced its automated RTG (ARTG) system to the container handling industry at TOC Europe 2013 in Rotterdam last week.

Konecranes says the new system provides RTG terminal operators with operational cost savings, greater productivity, increased predictability and increased safety. It is built around Konecranes' 16-wheel RTG, which has a unique ability to tolerate rough-yard surfaces.

With its new ARTG system, Konecranes says it has solved the problems that have been preventing the adoption of automated RTG operation. The Konecranes ARTG crane can handle a wide range of yard surface variations. It can also handle the multi-dimensional complexity of truck traffic, which flows along the container stacks in an automated operating model.