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Liebherr delivers new cranes to Latin America

[ April 7, 2017   //   ]

Liebherr Maritime recently delivered new equipment units to several Latin American countries, including Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Mexico and Bahamas.

In Puerto Rico, Liebherr Container Cranes has completed delivery of three new ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes to Crowley Maritime’s Isla Grande Terminal at the Port of San Juan. The units have an outreach of 39.62 meters, a span of 30.48 meters and a back reach of 15.54 meters. The machines, which feature a lift height over rail of 35 meters and a safe working load of 65 tonnes under twin lift spreader, are the first STS cranes to be shipped fully erect from Ireland, where they were assembled at Cork Dockyard facility.

Gerry Bunyan, Sales and Marketing Manager at Liebherr Container Cranes, said: “This is our first order to the island of Puerto Rico and we are happy to play a part in helping to improve the shipping services to the people on the island. The cranes were designed and manufactured in our Irish facility, where we have been making container cranes since the 1960s, and incorporate the latest technology including semi-automatic mode which maximizes the efficiency of container handling.”

In Jamaica, Liebherr Maritime Cranes has delivered a new MHC type LHM 600 in high-rise version for Kingston Wharves Limited’s multipurpose terminal at the Port of Kingston. The machine, which is the biggest crane operated in the Caribbean, is equipped with an elongated tower extension of 12 m to increase safety thanks to a higher position of the tower cabin of 37 meters. The King of the Caribbean has a maximum outreach of 58 meters and is able to handle fully loaded containers in the 19th container row across a ship. The new LHM joined an LHM 550 high-rise version unit already in operation at the terminal.

In Mexico, Liebherr is currently assembling two new mobile harbor cranes (MHCs) type LHM 420 in Altamira for the company Bredero Shaw International B.V. The units, which feature a 48 meters boom and a maximum lifting capacity of up to 124 tonnes, will also be equipped with a special pipe handling attachment and a camera system installed on the attachment to improve sight on the load.

Furthermore, Liebherr Maritime Cranes delivered two mobile harbor cranes to the customer Freeport Container Port. At the Bahamas, they were in big trouble after the hurricane Matthew. A lot of port and yard machinery was extensively damaged by the category 4 hurricane. Two STS cranes were toppled backwards. Liebherr has a good partnership with Freeport Container Port, which is operated by Hutchison Port Holdings. They were looking for a quick and uncomplicated bridge over solution until some new STS cranes are ready for operation.

Therefore, Liebherr provided them an LHM 550 and an LHM 600 in order to keep their business going. The delivery of the two cranes was managed in only 4 weeks’ time. Thanks to Liebherrs highly skilled service engineers, the installation of the two cranes took only one additional week.

After only five weeks Freeport Container Port was again able to serve container vessels. Since then Liebherr Maritime consistently receives tremendous feedback from the customer. A Liebherr spokesperson comments: “They are very happy with the performance of the cranes. We demonstrated Freeport Container Port/Hutchison that we are able to help when they needed us and that we are the right one to ask when it comes to nearly impossible challenges.”

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