BigLift vessels have recently been busy moving large cranes for Port of Savannah and Cadeler’s Wind Orca jack-up vessel. BigLift Barentsz delivered the all-electric cranes to Port of Savannah, while Happy Sky loaded the components for the first 1600-ton leg crane for Cadeler and is heading to the Netherlands.

Elsewhere, the company’s Happy Star loaded a 1,492 mt Continuous Ship Unloader in a tandem lift operation. Once on board, the CSU moved back eight metres under its own power to make space to enable the boom to turn. The main body of the CSU was seafastened to Happy Star’s deck with 8 push-pull braces.

The CSU was manufactured by Doosan on behalf of Glonet TLS for the JAWA 9 & 10 still under construction at Cilegon, Indonesia, making the Happy Star the first vessel ever to dock at this Cilegon facility.

Ship-to-shore cranes for Port of Savannah

BigLift Barentsz delivered a total of four Super Post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes to the Port of Savannah as part of the upgrade at the port. The four Konecranes-designed units will replace four older cranes that are retired and recycled.

Two of the cranes will be 295 feet tall and two will be 306 feet tall at the highest point when fully assembled. The reach of the cranes will be 22 and 24 containers wide, respectively. The taller cranes will be offloaded at Berth 1 at Garden City Terminal, the others will be installed on the upriver end of the terminal, at Berth 9.

Ship-to-shore cranes are the workhorses of container port operations, unloading and loading cargo from the container ships that call on the port.

GPA received a previous batch of four cranes in February to work the recently renovated Berth 1, which is now capable of serving vessels with a capacity of 16,000+ twenty-foot equivalent container units. The cranes and improved dock increase Garden City Terminal berth productivity by 25 per cent or 1.5 million TEUs of annual capacity.

New crane for Wind Orca

The wind turbines are sizing up, and so are the demands for even larger cranes with higher specifications. By the beginning of 2024, both of Cadeler’s O-class vessels will be ready to operate with new improved cranes capable of handling the next generation of turbines.

The new cranes will have a lifting capacity of 1,600 metric tons at a radius of 40 metres. The main hook will be able to reach 160 metres above the main deck and is therefore a substantial upgrade from the current vessel cranes.

GustoMSC said that the 1,600-tog leg crane for Wind Orca has passed Factory Acceptance Tests after manufacturing and has been loaded onto Happy Sky.  The vessel is now heading from Korea to Mammoet in Schiedam, The Netherlands, where they’ll be installed.