New RTG for Kiel

The Port of Kiel has taken delivery of a portal crane manufactured by Finnish company Konecranes for its Schwedenkai Intermodal Terminal, Germany.

The new rubber-tyred gantry crane (RTG) was delivered on September 25th from Gdynia in Poland aboard the heavy load vessel Meri. It is part of a Government funded €1.55 million investment, a spokesperson added.

The new crane has a 40 tonne capacity and measures 29 metres wide and straddles three track widths. It has a lifting height of 14 m and an overall height of 21 m. The new RTG will be used to unload trains used for rail-ship cargo handling.

Dirk Claus, Port of Kiel managing director (Seehafen Kiel), said, “The new portal crane is our contribution to moving more cargo onto environmentally-friendly rail services. The new portal crane will become a new scenic landmark at the Schwedenkai, just like the old port cranes used to be for bulk cargo handling.

“Schwedenkai may be only a relatively small operation”, Claus added, “but growing rail cargo traffic there represents a challenge which we want to take up with our fast and high-capacity new portal crane.”

The new crane will be put into service at the end of the year after final fitting, tests and acceptance procedures have been carried out, a spokesperson added.