ZPMC for DP World Australia

News 10 Oct 2016 by WCN Editorial

After placing an order for one crane with Liebherr in 2013, DP World Australia has stayed with ZPMC for four new units.

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In an $AU60 million investment, DP World Australia has ordered four new ZPMC super post-panamax container cranes for its east coast terminals. Scheduled for delivery in October 2017, DP World Australia’s Brisbane and Sydney terminals will receive one additional crane each, and the Melbourne terminal will receive two new cranes.

“We’re very excited about these new cranes,” said DP World Australia Chief Operations Officer, Max Kruse. “The last two super post-panamax cranes ZPMC delivered to DP World Australia in 2015 were handed over to onsite operations in record time with no disruption to our customers. We are confident of a similar or better outcome with the next four”.

DP World Australia did switch to Liebherr in 2013, when it received the first new Liebherr container crane in Australia in 35 years at its Melbourne Terminal. The crane arrived in pieces and was assembled at tested at one end of the berth, before being lifted off the rails and move to its final position between two existing cranes. This enabled the port to install and commission its new “No.1” crane with minimal disruption to operations.

At the time a DP World Australia spokesperson said that onsite assembly “is a vast improvement on past experience”, with “a much quicker assembly and commissioning which took approximately 8 weeks.” In fact DP World Australia predicted that the success of the project “could signal a move on how future cranes are deployed to Australia”. Its rival Patrick Stevedores subsequently ordered Liebherr cranes for its Port Botany expansion.

Of course delivery method is just one factor in the crane purchasing decision, and being for four cranes worth A$60M, this latest contract is a much larger order. Kruse noted that it is being placed following two major contract wins for DP World Australia: the A3 consortium’s decision to award seven of nine port calls on the Asia to Australia service, and the return of Swire Shipping’s Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands service to the Brisbane and Sydney terminals. “We’re investing now for future growth,” he said.

The new cranes will have LED lighting and manufacturing is scheduled to start in early 2017.