Ship-to-shore cranes a “game changer”

The Namibian Ports Authority (Namport) regards the commissioning of its four ship-to-shore cranes on its container terminal on reclaimed land as a “game changer” for business. The container terminal is now in use for fifteen months and hosts giant container ships with drafts of up to twelve meters.

The draft of a shift is the distance between the waterline and the bottom of the vessel’s hull. In cargo vessels, the draft is determined by cargo weight.
The commissioning of the container terminal on re-claimed land in late August 2019 made it possible for larger container vessels to call at Walvis Bay. That includes vessels like the Maersk Sheerness (on the picture) with its total length of 335.41 meters.
Maersk Sheerness made her second call to Walvis Bay on19 November during which a total of 439 containers were discharged from the vessel and a total of 2 642 were loaded.

Thanks to the ship-to-shore cranes the discharge and loading was achieved within 60 hours. Thanks to this short turnaround time, the vessel was soon underway to Port Klang in Malaysia. Maersk Sheerness includes Wal-vis Bay in her regular service between Asia and the west coast of Southern Africa which includes the port of Luanda.
Namport recently made the following statement with regard to the call of Maersk Sheerness: “The vessel sailed from Luanda, Angola and will be heading to the Port Klang, Malaysia after discharging 439 containers and loading 2 642 containers at the Port of Walvis Bay. The duration of the process is anticipated to last approximately 60 hours.
Interesting to note is that one of the gigantic STS cranes will be required to conduct 853 moves for the entire operation. This is a first time since the acquisition of the STS Cranes in February 2019. In the past, the four STS cranes had only been utilized for operations that required a maximum of 46 moves.

The Port is also preparing for the maiden call of the Wide Juliet container vessel. She arrived today Friday 27 November from Luanda, Angola and will be discharging 200 containers. The Wide Juliet which has a carrying capacity of 5380 TEUs will in future be part of the rotation with Walvis Bay as a port of call.
Since the inauguration of the New Container Terminal at the Port of Walvis Bay in August 2019 the terminal has become a game changer for port business, allowing its capacity to handle container ships with more than 12 meters of draft.
The presence of these vessels is testament that the Ports Authority is well on its way to attaining its vision of becoming the best performing world-class port in Africa”.