“In each case the floating crane could be berthed on the sea side of the container vessel moored alongside the shore terminal, to enhance terminal productivity, to mitigate container terminal congestion, or to tranship containers between the mother vessel and the feeders which distribute the containers to inland terminals through inland waterways,” he tells Port Strategy.

He also sees ports affected by restrictions on draught, lock dimension, beam or LOA which prevent them receiving the modern fleet of container vessels as potential buyers. “In India, Indonesia, China, the USA and the UK there are many of these terminals,” he says. ”The floating crane can be deployed for mid stream transhipment operation between larger container vessels and feeder ships.

However, using the Logmarin/Liebherr design for handling containers does have its limitations, admits Mr Terenzio. “Due to the operational issues associated with the transhipment of the containers, such as the necessary accuracy of positioning the spreader above the containers and the container positioning itself, this kind of operation has to be carried out in relative sheltered area with maximum waves height up to one metre and winds of no more than about 50 kilometres per hour,” he says.