ADPC invests 70 million USD to address growing cargo volumes
Abu Dhabi, UAE: Abu Dhabi Ports Company (ADPC), the master developer of ports and industrial zones, and Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT) the Container Terminal Operator, have announced today the arrival of three of the world's largest and most modern ship-to-shore (STS) quay cranes at Khalifa Port.
The Super Post Panamax quay cranes, which were delivered on Friday, 10 January, were produced by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. in China with a cost of 28 million USD, and travelled overseas on especially built ships to Khalifa Port's container terminal, the first semi-automated container terminal in the region.
One STS crane is 126.5 meters high and weighs 1,932 tons. It has an outreach of 65 meters (22 containers) and a lifting capacity of 90 tons.
The three new quay cranes will join the six already operational cranes at Khalifa Port's current 2.5 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) capacity container terminal, making it a total of nine STS cranes. In addition, six cutting edge automated stacking cranes (ASC) have recently joined the former 30 ASCs at Khalifa Port, and a further six are expected to arrive later in Q1, both batches representing an overall investment of 42 million USD.
Commenting on the recent deliveries, Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO, ADPC, said:
"After more than 100,000 TEUs passed through Khalifa Port last year in October, which was the highest number of containers ever handled in a single month in Abu Dhabi, the start of the new year has already been promising and signaled a significant increase in the emirate's import and export activities over the next twelve months. By investing in our state-of-the-art infrastructure we are further establishing Khalifa Port as one of the best equipped and most technologically advanced ports in the world."
Martijn Van de Linde, CEO, Abu Dhabi Terminals (ADT), added:
"The new STS cranes will further increase Khalifa Port's capacity adding 750,000 TEUs of throughput capacity to the terminal. We have continued to register double digit growth in 2013 and the new capacity is required to keep pace with the rapidly growing Abu Dhabi and UAE markets.
The industry leading STS cranes at Khalifa Port are specifically used for unloading container vessels which have become notably bigger over the past years. Vessels with a container volume of up to 14,000 TEUs are currently calling at Khalifa Port whose nine STS cranes will be able to handle up to 315 containers per hour (35 containers per crane, per hour).
Khalifa Port's cutting edge ASCs, which were delivered by Finnish production company Konecranes, are operated through an especially designed operating system and used to organize the containers in the dedicated container yard. Two ASCs cover one area (stack) in which up to 2,000 TEUs can be stacked. With the six newly delivered and six expected ASCs, the overall stacking capacity at Khalifa Port's container yard will increase by 40%.
About ADPC
As a master developer and regulator of ports and industrial zones in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, ADPC's core objective is to facilitate the diversification of the economy by stimulating development and trade, following Abu Dhabi's Economic Vision 2030.
ADPC manages eleven commercial, logistics, community and leisure ports, including its flagship state-of-the-art, deep-water Khalifa Port. ADPC supports partners' infrastructure projects and sets up new companies and joint ventures in the ports and industrial zones sectors.
ADPC is also developing Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad). Located adjacent to Khalifa Port, Kizad serves a range of logistics and manufacturing investors, and is destined to grow into one of the world's largest industrial zones.
The company's AED 26.5 billion (USD 7.2 billion) flagship Khalifa Port and Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (Kizad) has been designed to be flexible to reflect market needs.
Kizad was launched to market in 2010, and the whole of Khalifa Port was inaugurated on 12/12/12 by UAE President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The port's semi-automated container terminal was launched on 1 September, 2012. Khalifa Port is now handling all of Abu Dhabi's TEU container traffic, after its transfer from Zayed Port, the historic port in the city centre.
Phase One of Khalifa Port has a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs, plus 12 million tons of general cargo. Further phases of development will occur as market demand requires. With all phases complete, Khalifa Port will be able to handle 15 million TEUs and 35 million tons of general cargo per year.
For more information, please contact:
Akram Kanso
International Media Relations Consultant | Corporate Communication
PO Box 54477 Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone +971 (0)2 695 2982
Mobile +971 (0)50 4260365
Facsimile: +971 (0)2 695 2111
© Press Release 2014
