Ship to shore

As ships get bigger and the Gulf's ports get busier, there is a rush to upgrade the region's machines in the ports to keep up with demand.

On the other side of the world, the widening of the Panama Canal means that ships can now routinely carry more than 11,000 containers stacked 22 wide.

This is known as super-post panamax, and these great whales need new and similarly oversized gantry cranes to unload them.

According to Liebherr container cranes marketing manager Gerry Bunyan customers rarely ask for any thing else.

"In our experience, Middle East customers are coming to us looking for much larger cranes than ever before, it's very rare that we are asked to supply anything below super-post panamax now," he said.

Spread them

Container cranes differ from their inland counterparts as they feature a special lifting device known as a spreader, which can be expanded to carry 20, 40 or 45-foot containers.

Essentially, as the safe working load has been raised, the number and size of the shipping crates that can be moved in one cycle has grown. Initially containers were moved one by one, requiring a full lift-move-position return cycle per box.

With the advent of more sophisticated container spreaders came the ability to shift multiple containers per lift.

With the latest models of twin-lift spreaders, the crane operator can lift a 45-foot container or two 20-foot containers without changing the spreader.

The tandem spreaders available on the market allow even greater lifting capability with the ability to twin-lift the longest 45-foot containers or simultaneously lift four 20-foot shipping crates.

"The most significant mechanical development for ship-to-shore container operations has been the advent of the all electric spreaders, which are now available in a variety of configurations," says Lars Fredin, vice president, sales, at spreader manufacturer, Bromma.

To minimize the amount of time ships spend in port, the movement once containers have been picked has also been speeded up, with both the hoisting speed increased and the positioning of the containers made more accurate.

Robotic vehicles

The newest technology has some ports such as Hamburg in Germany investing huge amounts of money in total automation.

Various types of port vehicles such as straddle carriers and fork lift trucks are work robotically, guided by radio frequency identification (RFID).

Such a system is currently uneconomic in the Gulf, where manpower is cheaper and harbour space is less of a problem.

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