New cranes give port big lift
Preparations for arrival of larger cargo ships in Houston Ship Channel next year continue
A pair of cranes, each the height of a 30-story building, reached over the Houston Ship Channel as the sun rose Friday morning. Operators Louie Albert and J.B. Wiltz began to crank cables for the delicate task of unloading 1,200 containers from Hapag-Lloyd’s New Delhi Express onto the Barbours Cut terminal.
The two men, chosen for the job because of their decades of experience, aligned their crane cabs over each container. They threaded huge suspended claws through small holes on the upper corners of the steel boxes, lifted them toward the dock and fitted them onto trucks that would carry the cargo to stores, manufacturing plants and construction sites.
With that, the steel giants became the largest container cranes in operation in the U.S. Because they can move containers on and off ships faster than any of the others at Barbours Cut, they play a key role in helping the Port Authority gear up for more business in anticipation of larger container ships set to arrive with the opening of the Panama Canal’s wider lane next year.
‘A big milestone’
For even as the oil slump threatens jobs across the Houston region, the Port Authority is on track to move a record number of containers this year, the equivalent of 2 million 20-foot-long containers. And by 2017, a boom in plastic production in the region is expected to accelerate traffic further.
“This is a big milestone for us,” said Paulo Soares, who managed the project to get the cranes for the Port Authority. “It’s going to increase productivity. It’s going to allow us to unload larger vessels. Just the ability to move boxes faster, overall these will contribute to a much more productive terminal.”
The new cranes, which arrived in May from South Korea, are part of a set of four that cost $50 million. They dwarf the other 12 cranes along the dock. They extend 22 containers wide to load and unload ships, compared with the 13 container-wide reach of the older cranes.
The new cranes will be able to handle ships with 14,000 containers, Soares said. The biggest ships Barbours Cut gets now hold about 8,000.
Soares estimated the cranes will increase productivity by about 15 percent compared to the older cranes on the dock.
The biggest difference, Soares said, is the new cranes’ ability to pick up two loaded containers at once, end to end, with up to 72 tons of cargo inside. The older cranes can only pick up two empty containers, or one loaded. They’re also tall enough to pass over the highest part of a ship, saving 15 or 20 minutes for every time operators would need to raise and lower the crane boom around a ship.
“It’s a quick turnaround,” Soares said. “It definitely helps our customers.”
On average the new cranes will move 38 containers per hour, Soares said, though their pace could exceed 50 per hour. They are one step in a broader plan by the Port Authority to prepare for more container traffic and make Houston an attractive destination for shippers.
The agency touts access to Texas cities and the Midwest. Many imports to the U.S. come into West Coast ports and are trucked or moved by rail to the middle of the country. Although transporting over water is cheaper, it takes longer and companies stick to their routes.
Targeting Asian ships
Until now, larger container ships also have been too big to get to Houston through the Panama Canal.
But with the canal’s expansion slated to open next spring, the Port Authority hopes to attract more shippers. West Coast ports currently receive the majority of ships from Asia, and most expect it to stay that way. But the past few years have proven promising.
A decade ago, the Port Authority had no regular calls from Asia, but now those routes make up a quarter of its container business. When labor unrest caused delays at West Coast ports earlier this year, some companies diverted ships to Houston, sending container traffic up 46 percent in April from the year before. A few kept coming to Houston even after the bottleneck cleared.
The Port Authority handles the majority of container trade through Houston, with an average of 2,800 containers passing through the gates at Barbours Cut per day on trucks, as they get picked up from ships or dropped off for export. Several thousand more come and go at the Port Authority’s other container terminal at Bayport.
Local port leaders and some economists say activity along the port could help offset the harm of low oil prices on Houston’s economy.
The Houston area is the No. 1 exporting region in the country, and in 2014 $92 billion worth of exports moved through the port.
Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership, said that about 5,700 local companies do business internationally, much of which involves imports and exports through the port. That’s up from about 1,800 in the 1980s.
The Port of Houston Authority expects 5 to 6 percent annual growth in container trade over the next four to five years, executive director Roger Guenther has said. The biggest anticipated driver of new container traffic is the boom of plastic production as more natural gas processors go into operation in 2017.
The cranes are the latest step in preparing for that growth. Last month, the Port Commission approved $33.5 million to purchase three more of the giant cranes for Barbours Cut. And in September the agency completed dredging, allowing ships up to 45 feet deep to call on the terminal, making way for bigger and more heavily laden ships.
Port Commission Chairwoman Janiece Longoria also said last month that the Port Authority is close to establishing refrigerated cargo facilities, which would allow produce imports from South America.
On the 290-foot apex of one of the cranes still awaiting its debut, Justin Sauceda knelt on the metal grate of the open walkway Friday, applying a final coat of grayish-white paint.
From the crane next to him, containers swayed as they were lifted from the New Delhi Express onto truck beds.
In the cab, operators watched through glass floors as they used controls on their armrests to maneuver the boxes suspended by cables.
The top longshoremen get the chance to operate cranes, said Bobby Miller, who represents crane operators with the International Longshoremen’s Association, the union that provides dock labor.
Busy operation
Candidates are first tested for depth perception and coordination before being selected for six months of training.
Miller said it takes about 18 months on the job to really get a feel for operating cranes.
“There’s a lot of it that you can’t really teach. It’s just by experience,” he said.
“Each one of these cranes has got its own personality. It’s fast in this area and slow in this area. They have their own idiosyncrasies.”
On windy days operators can feel the air through the cab’s seams, he said, and the containers become harder to control.
“The wind catches it, and it’s like trying to land a kite,” Miller said.
Friday morning didn’t bring wind, though rain clouds threatened. Even with the clouds, from the top of the crane the view stretched down the gleaming Ship Channel, to the outlines of refineries and Bayport’s cranes, and even made the thousands of containers in the dock yard below look small.