What developments in Port performance can we observe?

Ports are facing increasing demands for a quick turnaround of vessels from customers with increasing size of ships. The main bottleneck in port performance is crane handling. Ports have not made any significant breakthroughs in container handling, neither does there appear to be any new radical solutions on the horizon. In the “Review of MaritimeTransport 2007” is was reported that, in Shenzhen, China, a crane capable of lifting 3 FEU’s (forty-foot-equivalents) came into operation. These crane improved the container handling from 60 boxes per hour to 64 boxes an hour. If a ship contains more than 5000 containers, these improvements don’t make much difference. A concept to further improve container handling efficiency has led one crane manufacturer to design, on paper, a crane capable of handling 4 FEU’s simultaneously.