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TAMPA — Port Tampa Bay commissioners have approved a $24 million container crane project contract with Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co.
Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries will construct and deliver two new 65-ton container gantry cranes with a 174-foot reach, according to a release. The new cranes will service up to 19 rows of containers — a significantly longer reach than the port's current gantry cranes. Those cranes are also more than 40 years old.
Half the funds for the purchase comes from a $12 million package approved by the Florida Legislature and signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott in August. Port Tampa Bay says the total $24 million investment will allow it to serve the larger container vessels being deployed by regional and global carriers. The new cranes will be assembled in Shanghai, China and brought to Port Tampa Bay, where they are scheduled be installed and operational in the first quarter of 2016. “Port Tampa Bay is entering a higher level of competitiveness with the purchase of two new state-of-the-art gantry cranes,” Port Tampa Bay President and CEO Paul Anderson says in a press release.
Port Tampa Bay's container terminal, on 40 acres, has a capacity of about 250,000 containers per year. At full build-out, the container terminal will be 160 acres, with the capacity to handle one million containers a year.
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