New cranes for FCT (First Container Terminal)

The biggest container terminal on the Baltic, First Container Terminal, part of the Sea Port of Saint-Petersburg, chose Baltkran JSC to manufacture three cranes to work with rail road cars.

Nowadays First Container Terminal, Saint-Petersburg, is an unquestioning leader in the container throughput on the Baltic Sea and Russia. This company that offers its services in container handling of various types is on the list of the biggest shipping lines. The FCT container traffic is in continuous growth; by the end of 2004 growth is 22.7% compared to 2003. The FCT plays a leading role among container terminals of the Bolshoy Port of Saint-Petersburg.

Successful operation of the FCT is mostly determined by sophisticated equipment working in the terminal. Apparently, today the terminal is pressed for increase in container handling with r/r transport by one third.
For these purposes three yard RMGs are planned to be put into operation in the terminal. Companies from Russia, China, Italy, Austria and Finland participated in the tender. The award was given to the products of Russian company Baltkran. These three new cranes will replace older machines from Konecranes that do not meet current requirements of the terminal.

The lifting capacity of new cranes equipped with a hydraulic spreader is 45t. This is about 40% higher compared to cranes from Konecranes. These units of Russian make fully comply with the highest international and national standards for port equipment. They will have intelligent control system. Crane Management System includes extensive diagnostics: signals related to the place ant type of failures are transmitted to the touch screen mounted in the operator's cab. Besides, when necessary the data from transducers can be passed to the manufacturer via a modem (the spreader has a separate line). Reliable operation of the crane in high humidity and low temperatures (below -30C) is guaranteed by the heated cable chain.

The cranes will be shipped fully erected by sea transport. The same system was used during transportation of ten fully equipped cranes to Los Angeles, US for American ship line "American President Line". Assembly and shop testing will take place in Kaliningrad; afterwards all three cranes will be delivered to Saint-Petersburg by one ship.

After discharge the cranes will be delivered to the yard for immediate operation right from the board of the ship by means of rotating bogie sets. Due to that the terminal down time will be brought to minimum.