HHLA has shipped out two ship-to-shore (STS) container cranes that had been in use at the company's Burchardkai for the past 16 years.

The new-old machinery, able to handle 14,000 TEU-big ships, will arrive in Tallinn on 9 July.

The cranes will be customised after arrival and will come online by end-year.

Their Hamburg-based colleagues have already trained HHLA TK Estonia's container gantry crane operators and technicians in using the STSes.

The preparations for the transport started last year: a 35 m-wide gate was built into the flood protection wall at Hamburg's Burchardkai to move the 1,400t-heavy apiece cranes from the quayside to the 122 x 36.5 m transport barge of the Belgian company Sarens.

The barge's position was adjusted to the height of the quayside using high-performance pumps. The loading process itself was carried out with the help of a transport platform that has 92 axles and 184 wheels. The cranes were turned 180 degrees before the transhipment.

"The additional cranes from Hamburg are a huge step towards expanding the handling capacity at our terminal. In future, we will no longer have three but five container gantry cranes to handle ships. It is another important milestone in the further development of our terminal into a key Baltic hub within the port network of HHLA," Riia Sillave, HHLA TK Estonia's Managing Director, commented.

Photo: HHLA/Dietmar Hasenpusch