CRANES ON THE MOVE AT ABP’S PORT OF NEWPORT AS STEEL VOLUMES INCREASE
Visitors to Associated British Ports’ (ABP) Port of Newport would normally expect to see harbour cranes loading a vessel. Yet in a turn of events, two 40-tonne capacity cranes were recently unloaded from a barge at Newport, having been shipped up the Severn Estuary from ABP’s Port of Swansea.
The two Stothert and Pitt cranes were transferred to handle increased volumes of steel-coil exports from the Corus steelworks at Llanwern. Contractors Seward Wyon of Bath managed the operation and the two cranes, which were partially dismantled for the journey, were shipped aboard the floating crane Mersey Mammoth. The journey from Swansea to Newport took eight hours and upon arrival, the rail-mounted cranes – which weigh 280 tonnes each – were unloaded onto modified bogies*.
Utilising Mersey Mammoth’s heavy-lift capability following the successful operation, a Stothert and Pitt 10-tonne capacity crane was moved across Newport’s South Dock. The 170-tonne crane was relocated to increase the efficiency of coal-handling operations at the port’s South Quay.
After the mammoth move, John Fitzgerald, Port Director of ABP’s South Wales Ports, said:
“The project to transfer the three cranes was carried out in response to an increase in steel volumes and an initiative to improve coal-handling operations at the port. The strategic re-positioning of the cranes has resulted in quicker cargo-handling times, boosting the efficiency of the Port of Newport.”
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