Cargo Service A/S, of the Port of Aarhus, Denmark, has awarded Kalmar a five-year maintenance and service contract for 19 Kalmar ESC Edrive 350 straddle carriers.

Kalmar will supply Cargo Service with preventive and breakdown maintenance, engineering support, daily inspections and spare parts. The machines are due for delivery in the northern hemisphere's spring.

Kalmar vice president for maintenance Rob van Howe said the deal was "basically an insurance contract" for Cargo Service.

"They simply operate the machines while Kalmar retains overall responsibility for making sure they are available and operating at peak performance at all times," he said.

In May, Kalmar engineers will work from a temporary workshop in Aarhus, built from containers. By September they would move into permanent premises being built at the terminal, a Kalmar statement said.

Cargo Service had been a loyal Kalmar customer since buying a Kalmar reach stacker more than 30 years ago, van Howe said.

"Over the years, the relationship between the two companies has grown from strength to strength. We have a long-term interest in Cargo Service's success," he said.

The three-high seventh generation straddle carriers will be equipped with Kalmar's Smartpath container position verification system and remote monitoring interface. The machines would have inbuilt provisions for sensors to accommodate future upgrades to an automated system, the statement said.