Four giant overhead cranes are to be installed on the T3 quay at the Baltic Hub in Gdańsk, thanks to which the terminal's capacity will be increased. They are transported as a whole. Representatives of the Baltic Hub company announce that their unloading will be the first such a spectacular operation in Poland.
– What is groundbreaking is that these cranes arrive complete. This is the first such spectacular operation in Poland. They will be ready for use within two months after unloading. As a result, the construction of the terminal is accelerated – Dominik Wróblewski, director of infrastructure projects at Baltic Hub, told TVN24.
A ship with four cranes on board is scheduled to arrive in Gdańsk soon.
They sail from Changxin Port
“Each of the cranes weighs almost 2,000 tons and is over 96 meters high (140 meters with the boom raised). Four such giants sailed from the port of Changxin, circumnavigating Africa, and ending their journey in the waters of the Baltic Sea. The route is exactly 16,115 miles marine, i.e. almost 29,500 km,” the company's representatives wrote on social media.
They said that reaching the quay was only the beginning of a “spectacular spectacle”, i.e. the unloading of the STS cranes. Each of them will be transported (slipped) from the ship's deck to the quay and – as estimated – “it will be a long and complicated process, requiring almost surgical precision.”
Terminal throughput will increase
Baltic Hub's marketing and communication manager, Magdalena Jagła, informs that the unloading of the cranes will start on Monday and may take up to 10 days.
SEE ALSO: They found “a granite top of a monument weighing three tons”, they want to dig out the rest
The installation of four STS cranes is another step towards the partial launch of the T3 quay. Full launch of the wharf is planned for the end of September 2025. Thanks to this, the capacity of the Baltic Hub terminal will increase by an additional 1.5 million TEU.
They will move on rails, not wheels
Baltic Hub, which was launched in 2007 under the name DCT Gdańsk, currently has a transhipment capacity of up to 3 million TEU per year. The total length of the terminal's two deepwater quays is 1.3 km, which allows it to handle four ships at the same time. The terminal handles over 700 ships a year, including the largest container ships in the world. In 2023, the terminal handled 2.05 million TEUs and employs over 1.4 thousand. people.
– Installing cranes will increase the processing capacity and power of the terminal. It will have over 36 hectares. There will be 18 squares on it. The overhead cranes will be used to reload containers directly from the units to the square. The cranes' reach will be up to 26 rows. What is also innovative about them is that they will move on rails. Those that are functioning so far move on wheels – said our reporter Marta Ulatowska-Jesse on TVN24.
Main photo source: TVN24