A week after the State Ports Authority received two new cranes capable of handling the world’s largest ships, the maritime agency on Friday sold two of its oldest — cranes, making the official end of cargo container traffic at the Columbus Street Terminal.
The State Ports Authority took delivery of two new super post-Panamax cranes (above, left) last week. The cranes will start handling cargo brought in on larger container ships at the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant later this year. staff/leroy burnell
The SPA’s board of directors voted unanimously to sell a pair of nearly 19-year-old cranes for $3.9 million to DP World, a Dubai-based company that owns nearly 80 marine and inland cargo terminals worldwide.
Jim Newsome, the SPA’s president and CEO, said there is little demand in Charleston for cranes with relatively short 50-foot-long arms. Fortunately, DP World had a specific use for them at its St. John, New Brunswick terminal in Canada. The 50 foot cranes will increase capacity at the Canadian terminal and DP World saves up to $10 million versus purchasing new.
“It sounds like a perfect scenario,” Bill Stern, a SPA board member, said of the sale.
The agency had considered moving the old cranes to a new site, but the $7 million transportation cost was prohibitive. The SPA will save about $140,000 in annual maintenance costs.
The Post and Courier reports, most cranes used at large marine terminals these days are equipped with 100-foot-long arms to load and unload container boxes from wider ships traveling through an expanded Panama Canal. At that length, several truck lanes can be formed between the crane and a ship, making cargo transfers quicker.
“If you work five cranes on a ship, you need a lane under every crane,” Newsome said. “So, if you have a 50-foot gauge, that really limits you. A 100-foot gauge crane can get four or five (truck) lanes.”
The SPA took delivery of two of the world’s largest container ship cranes — called super post-Panamax cranes — last week. Those will be used at Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant, the SPA’s largest and busiest container terminal. The big lifting devices, made in China, cost a combined $27 million. They will be capable of handling a fully loaded ship carrying 14,000 containers.
Wando Welch, along with the SPA’s North Charleston Terminal and a new terminal being built at the former Navy Base in North Charleston, handle containerized cargo for the Port of Charleston.
The Columbus Street Terminal on the peninsula has not handled containerized cargo since 2011, when the SPA dedicated the site for BMW vehicles waiting for be shipped abroad. Volvo, which is building its first U.S. manufacturing site in Berkeley County, also will use the property when it starts producing cars in 2018.
“We’re just increasingly unwilling to put container operations back on Columbus Street” because of the need for vehicle export space, Newsome said. “Once we secure Volvo, Columbus Street will be a fully engaged terminal.”
Reach David Wren at 843-937-5550 or on Twitter at @David_Wren_
