The Congestion Buster
Barcelona is to award a 30-year concession this year for its brand new container terminal on Prat Quay. Late last year, the port's second box handling facility, Tercat, made all the industry headlines when it was revealed that its bidding partner for the contract would be none other than the Hong Kong-based international stevedoring group Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH).
Last year, throughput amounted to 714,000TEUs, up 13.2%, while terminal manager Josep Olles predicts at least a further 15% increase in 2006 to around 820,000TEUs. Under most circumstances, this type of sustained year-on-year double-digit growth should have resulted in massive quayside congestion, but Olles' team has proved itself highly successful in rotating vessels in and out of the terminal at rates not often seen in the Mediterranean.
Part of the reason why such high levels are being achieved from such a small area is that 42% of terminal traffic is generated by transhipment, where box dwell-time in the yard can often be much lower than for import/export containers.
"We believe that this terminal could handle up to a ceiling of 930,000 TEUs, but this really depends on us ensuring a rapid throughput of transhipment containers. MSC, for example, rotates a lot of boxes out of here on smaller feeders for ports in North Africa, whilst also using Barcelona to take empty containers back to the Far East. As long as we can keep both those elements moving, we can continue to expand our business, " says Olles.
Given the density of stacking currently required in the terminal, last year's productivity average of 25.7 moves-per-crane-hour was hugely impressive, too. "We achieve this type of productivity by classifying transhipment containers as they are being discharged.
Although this slows down the offloading of boxes, their subsequent loading back onto other vessels becomes much faster because everything is already extremely well prepared. If we didn't classify boxes in this manner, we would have neither the time nor the space to prepare them properly for the outgoing vessel, " explains Olles.
He also insists that having sufficient quayside gantry cranes available is another key element in speeding up throughput. Tercat currently has eight post-Panamax units, with two super-postPanamax cranes capable of spanning 18 rows due to enter service in February and March. Several Gottwald mobile harbour cranes, which are usually deployed for the handling of steel products, can also be called upon as necessary.
"Our philosophy is to concentrate as many cranes as possible on each vessel as quickly as we can to avoid congestion building up along the quay. This certainly pays dividends because, from time to time, MSC may decide to miss out a call at either Valencia or Fos, which means we may have as little as 8-10 hours notice if the vessel involved is diverted here. These kinds of surprises could have a negative impact on our terminal operation, which is why we like to get ships in and out as soon as possible."
In the yard, 11 RTGs work four high stacks, which rise to five in periods of heavy traffic. Nevertheless, empties are nearly always arranged in five-high stacks. Interestingly, for export boxes, RTGs are used to prepare blocks of containers in advance of vessel arrival, although all subsequent picking is undertaken by reachstacker, which Olles stresses enables him to get the most out of his equipment.
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