The Maher Terminals LLC at the Port of New York & New Jersey (NY/NJ) took delivery this week of three ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes. By good luck and coincidence, we were able to drive to Staten Island and take pictures of the cranes and the heavylift vessel on several occasions.
The STS Cranes were manufactured by Liebherr Container Cranes Limited in Ireland, and they were shipped to the US onboard the Heavylift / Module Carrier Vessel MV “BigLift Baffin”, and ready for final assembly once at the dock.
The Cranes have an extent of 30.48 meters, a back-reach of approximately 23 meters, an outreach of 69.5 meters and a lift height over rail of 53 meters. This type of STS Cranes are described by Liebherr as “Super Post Panamax / Megamax” size, and can handle world’s largest containerships (ca 22,000 teu), as the 69.5 m outreach allows access to 24 rows of containerships onboard (that define a “Megamax” vessel (“MGX-24”.) Due to the Bayonne Bridge aidraft restrictions (which is the limiting factor for the Port of New York / New Jersey), containerships up to 14,000-teu can enter the port, thus these STS cranes will be more than sufficient to handle the Port’s containership needs.
The Maher Terminals already own several Liebherr STS cranes, having acquired two in 2012, two more in 2014, four in 2016, and now making a grand total of eleven such STS Cranes.
Based on information provided, these three STS Cranes are electrically driven, and they are expected to allow the terminal to reach its goal of becoming a net-zero emissions facility by 2040. The Cranes are state-of-the-art in many respects, as they require less energy to operate than traditional cranes. Further, they are ergonomic with ultra-high efficiency LED floodlights also reduce energy consumption by 70% over traditional fixtures and provide better light quality to the longshoremen, while they can also decrease glare and light pollution.
Our firm, Karatzas Marine Advisors, recently had undertaken a physical survey and appraisal assignment on behalf of a major financial institution, for a series of STS Cranes, Rubber-Tyred Gantry Cranes (RTGs) and other intermodal equipment (i.e. reach-stackers, top-stackers, jockey trucks, bob trailers, etc), and one has to experience the “orchestra” of such equipment when a containership is in port in order to appreciate the efficiency of moving boxes quickly and efficiently, as they have to be unloaded quickly, stacked and stored temporarily by the containership, made available for Customs inspection (as needed) and then made ready for loading on trucks and rail, while a “reverse pipeline” with empties (and also back-leg cargo) are prepped to be loaded on the containership.
As far as the Vessel that was able to handle such delicate (and expensive) cargo with panache, kudos go to BigLift Shipping which is part of the Spliethoff Group of companies, based in the Netherlands, and specialize in heavy and hard-to-handle cargoes. The BigLift Vessels are distinctively painted with bright blue, and generally having a ship’s name bearing the word “Happy”. Images of the Heavylift Vessel MV "Happy River" sailing upstream in the Elber River in Hamburg in 2015 can be seen here.
The MV “BigLift Baffin” is MC-Class, built in 2016 at COSCO Dalian SY and flying the flag of the Netherlands, has ro-ro cargoe capabilities of appr. 16,000 mt; the Vessel is ice-class 1A by Finnish Swedish; its deck is 125 x 42 m completely flush, without any air heads or overflow pipes and the high ballast capacity significantly reduces the loading and discharging times of the vessel. The Vessel has Dynamic Positioning (DPS 2), which provides unique opportunities for offshore transportation and installation services.
