SMV Lifttrucks has secured a lucrative supply agreement with the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT). This new development at Port Said East is expected to open on October 1.

SCCT managing director Philip Littlejohn said the new terminal was at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal and would attract major shipping lines.

"The new terminal will be a state of the art facility and soon be the natural transhipment centre for the Eastern Mediterranean," he said. "At this location, deviation from the normal Asia/Europe-route is zero, and the growing markets of the Eastern Mediterranean are within easy reach."

SCCT chose SMV reach stackers and empty container handlers for handling cargo at the new terminal. Low costs, good quality and service clinched the deal, Littlejohn said. Neither the number of machines sold, nor the contract price, was available for publication before deadline.

Littlejohn added that SCCT also wanted more than a regular supplier. "The reliability of the machinery we use decides our ability to give clients a swift and flexible service," he said. "We see SMV as a business partner that, over time, will help us develop our service and cost efficiency."

The new Port Said terminal will have between 400 and 770 employees. In its first year it is expected to handle about 600,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), growing to 2.2 million TEUs within five years, Littlejohn said.

Also this month, SMV has sold three reach stackers to Indonesian container shipping company Tempuras Emas. The SC4127 TA machines joined 18 other SMV machines in the company's fleet.