APMT to enlarge 10 cranes at Pier 400 in Los Angeles

The 10 STS cranes will be the tallest in service at any port in the United States, capable of handling ultra-large containerships with capacities of up to 20,000 TEUs, according to port terminal operator APM Terminals.

   APM Terminals, the port terminal operator arm of Danish shipping conglomerate AP Moller-Maersk A/S, has signed an agreement to enlarge 10 STS cranes at its Pier 400 facility in the Port of Los Angeles, the company said in a statement.
   Following the modifications, the cranes will be the tallest in service at any port in the United States, capable of handling ultra-large containerships with capacities of up to 20,000 TEUs, according to APMT.
   APMT has tapped Shanghai-based ZPMC to perform the crane modifications, which include raising their overall height and extending of the cranes’ booms and were designed by Terex-Noell, the cranes’ original manufacturer. The upgraded cranes will also feature Light Emitting Diode (LED) illumination, which will improve visibility and the accuracy of the cranes’ associated Optical Character Recognition (OCR) programs, as well as reduce energy use 60 percent compared with the current conventional lighting system.
   “Following the very successful handling of the 18,000-TEU CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin at Pier 400 last December, the first call of a vessel of that size to any North American port, APM Terminals is continuing to lead the way with the infrastructure investment necessary to meet the needs of our customers, and the evolving requirements of American seaborne trade,” said Pier 400 Los Angeles Managing Director Steve Trombley, who signed the contract on behalf of APMT.
   The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin called at Pier 400 in a test run during the last week of December 2015.  The French ocean carrier announced plans shortly thereafter to deploy the massive vessel, along with five sister ships, permanently in the transpacific trade between Asia and the U.S. West Coast.
   Those plans were scrapped last month, however, and CMA CGM did not give much in the way of an explanation for the reversal.
   “Considering the current transpacific market situation and in order to optimize the use of its fleet, the CMA CGM Group has decided to postpone its project to deploy 18,000 TEU-capacity vessels on this trade,” the carrier said at the time.
   APMT noted that the largest vessels currently calling at U.S. West Coast ports have a capcity between 12,000 TEUs and 13,000 TEUs, but no vessels of that size serve ports on the U.S. East or Gulf coasts. Once the widened Panama Canal locks officially open in June vessels of this size will be able to transit the important waterway for the first time, but carriers thus far have not announced any plans to send such large ships from Asia to the East or Gulf coasts via the canal.
   At 484 acres, APM Terminals Pier 400 Los Angeles, which opened in 2002, is the largest single proprietary terminal in the world, according to APMT. The 65-acre on-dock rail facility, which includes an intermodal yard, storage tracks and five miles of working track, can accommodate four double stack trains simultaneously. The terminal handled 2.48 million TEUs of containerized cargo in 2015.