The Canadian port terminal in Halifax will receive three front end loaders, eight intermodal terminal tractors and five roll-on/roll-off terminal tractors in the second quarter of this year.
Halterm Container Terminal Limited committed an additional $4.5 million towards new equipment this year for its international container terminal facility at the Port of Halifax, Nova Scotia Halterm CEO and Managing Director Ashley Dinning said.
In May, three front end loaders (FELs) and eight intermodal terminal tractors will arrive, while in June, five roll-on/roll-off terminal tractors will be delivered, Halterm said.
The FELs are for container handling in the yard and on rail; the intermodal tractors are for hauling containers from ships to the yard and rail, and vice versa; and the roll-on/roll-off terminal tractors are for driving trailers into and out of ships’ holds via ramps.
The new FELs will augment Halterm Container Terminal’s existing container handling equipment, which includes five rubber-tired gantries and seven FELs. However, shortly after the new equipment is put into operation, two of the current FELs will be retired. In addition, the terminal tractors will replace current equipment.
Overall, the new investment follows Halterm’s $20 million commitment two years ago for two super post-Panamax cranes, which are now a dominant feature of the Halifax skyline, the terminal operator said.
“This ongoing investment makes Halterm an even more attractive proposition to the international shipping companies looking for the most efficient and cost effective way to move cargo in and out of east coast Canada and North America” Dinning said in a statement. “There are no operational, navigational or nautical restrictions to ships calling Halterm, which means we can handle the biggest container ships ever likely to call East Coast North America now and into the future.”