€2.8m Liebherr crane is installed at Foynes port
FOYNES Port has received a massive new addition in the shape of a new Liebherr crane, the biggest ever installed at the harbour on the Shannon.
The Shannon Foynes Port Company which has official jurisdiction over all marine activities and port management on the 500km2 Shannon Estuary, has invested €2.8 million on the new Liebherr crane.
The crane, which can lift the equivalent weight of 120 family cars, is the latest purchase as part of the company’s ongoing €64million investment programme launched in 2015 that is seeking to transform the Shannon Estuary into a major national and international economic hub.
This programme – which will provide a significant employment boost to north Kerry – is the first phase of a planned long-term investment by SFPC under its Vision 2041 masterplan, which is targeting the creation of 3,000 jobs over the 26-year lifespan of the plan.
The tender was awarded to Liebherr last year and the crane was manufactured at the company’s Rostock, Germany plant where it builds some 70 of these units annually.
The bespoke unit was built over a four-month period and had a six-day sailing before it arrived at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary where the vessel carrying it anchored for a day to allow the busy port to free up before the two-and a-half-hour sailing to Foynes could take place. The crew then waited for high water so that the vessel level reached that of the jetty, allowing for the crane to be driven off the cargo vessel by remote control by waiting Liebherr technicians.
The crane investment has been preceded by a €12.5million investment in filling 3.45 acres on the port’s East Jetty, where the 370-tonne crane will mainly operate.
The next stage in the investment programme, with pre-planning underway, will be the reclamation of a further two hectares of quayside space and new crane will allow significant traffic growth at Foynes, with the new facilities enabling the SFPC to unload 40,000 ton vessels directly alongside the quay.
“We need efficient jetties but we also need efficient plant and machinery, and this crane gives us all of that and more,” said SFPC CEO Pat Keating.
This piece of equipment is future-proofing the port. It’s something we need for the here and now but it’s also planning for the future.
“The greater lift capacity and reach allows us to bring new business; bigger ships; more ships; and process them with faster turnaround times. So it’s an investment in our customers. It also has very low emissions, and noise levels are lower also, so its environmental footprint is minimised,” Mr Keating told the media.
John Carlton, Engineering and Port Services Manager for SFPC, said that the crane has been in the planning for a number of years.
“This is the biggest crane we have ever had in the port. Its lifting capacity is just over double our existing capacity at 124-tonne single lift. Everything about this crane is bigger, better, faster, stronger. It’s a very significant piece of equipment for the port,” said Mr Carlton.
Liebherr previously supplied another crane to the port in 1992 with that crane still operating at the harbour.