Kalmar straddle carrier

Ocean shipping ports in Los Angeles, California and Savannah, Georgia are upgrading their materials handling capabilities.

Amidst acrimony, the Los Angeles city council approved major changes on 19 November to a harbour construction project, although costs have more than doubled in four years.

The upgrade to the TraPac Inc terminal in the city's Wilmington neighbourhood increased to USD510 million from USD245 million in 2009.

Council members took exception to certain funding that may not have gone through the entire approval process.

TraPac and port executives agreed in 2010 to change the type of equipment planned for the project to automated rail-mounted cranes instead of rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes and effectively increasing the cost by USD175 million.

The Kalmar unit of Cargotec Oy of Helsinki, Finland is scheduled for 2015/16 delivery of 17 automated stacking cranes and 11 automated straddle carriers to TraPac Inc for its redevelopment project in Los Angeles. TraPac is the US terminal operating subsidiary of Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd of Tokyo.

Kalmar delivered 17 automated straddles and 10 automated stacking cranes to TraPac in 2011.

Paceco Corp is supplying TraPac with two automated cranes for the terminal's intermodal yard. Paceco is a unit of crane builder Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co Ltd of Tokyo. The Paceco cranes will interface with the Kalmar straddles and load rail cars automatically.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) is investing USD8 million to expand its program to electrify the RTG cranes used to handle containers at its Garden City Terminal at the Port of Savannah. GPA says the new technology can reduce diesel consumption by about 95% per crane.

In the fiscal year ended 30 June 2013, during the program's first phase, the GPA electrified four RTG cranes. The next phase of the project will expand the electrification system to a larger area and convert 10 cranes from diesel to electric power.

"We are making significant investments in reducing diesel consumption, in more efficient container yard lighting and in storm water treatment that protects the Savannah River," says Robert Jepson, GPA board chairman.

Lifting equipment specialist Konecranes Oyj of Hyvinkää, Finland has delivered 20 RTGs to the GPA and four superpost-Panamax ship-to-shore container cranes.