Huge Container Gantry Cranes for the Port of Hamburg

The largest container ships in the world are handled at Burchardkai at the port of Hamburg and cabin manufacturer KML, based in Lahr in the Black Forest, has secured a large order to equip the five new large container gantry cranes for the location.

The first three new high-tech container gantry cranes arrived in November 2019, made by the Chinese manufacturer ZPMC arrived at Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA)’s Container Port. Two more will follow in March. They are all equipped with high-performance observation cabins made by KML.

“We are also the specialist partner for port logistics,” said Stefan Lochmann, managing director of KML GmbH. “With our high-quality materials and perfect technological processing, we ensure that the lifetime of the cabins is significantly extended. This is what we understand by sustainability and quality. And this always means an economic added value for our customers  HHLA in Hamburg and KML in Lahr have been cooperating for quite a long time. We are preparing to plan further projects with both HHLA and the Chinese partner ZPMC. ”

Due to the port environment, the cabins of the large container cranes were given a special maritime, high quality paint finish. These are resistant to fading for a sustained period and withstand aggressive seawater. In March the remaining two cabins will reach the port and be assembled.

The steel cabins, each of approx five tons in weight, were developed and manufactured by KML according to the special requirements of the Chinese client and the Hamburg Port Logistics: Comfortable heating and air conditioning control, insulation glazing with blinds in between the glass, an excellent quality workmanship as well as a standard revolving door in the rear wall provide the best working conditions. The people working in the gantry crane observation cabin operate the ultra-modern container gantry cranes at the height of around 20 metres and monitor the unloading of the cargo or check that the containers match the unloading or loading lists. During the engineering process, it was therefore important, to design the workplace in the cabin in such a way that a very good all-round view is possible. For this reason even the desk in the cabin was specially designed with a glass top.

The crane giants, each weighing 2,480 tonnes, can move two 40-foot containers or four 20-foot containers with a total of 110 tonnes in one single move. This is equivalent to the weight of 70 mid-range cars.  The booms of the new cranes have a length of almost 80 metres and reach over 26 rows of containers.

With the five new large container gantry cranes, HHLA is creating additional capacity for handling particularly large container ships with a cargo volume of 23,000 standard containers and more. The investment in new container gantry cranes is part of HHLA’s expansion programme to enlarge the container port. HHLA is planning to invest one billion euros by 2022, of which some 450 million euros are to be invested in container handling.