California emissions legislation accelerating all-electric uptake

That’s according to Kalmar president, Antti Kaunonen, who said the equipment manufacturer will continue to develop new technology to keep up with the growing demand for all-electric cargo handling equipment being driven by the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles Clean Air Action Plans.

“The drive towards electrically powered equipment opens up some very exciting avenues for development,” said Mr Kaunonen.

“In addition to newly built machines, we are beginning to see upgrade paths from diesel to zero-emissions technologies in existing equipment, similarly to what we can already accomplish with RTG cranes.”

Fuel cells

Mr Kaunonen noted that companies willing to take a leadership role in developing eco-efficient solutions will have great possibilities ahead of them.

He said it was important to note the ongoing development of fuel cells and whether they will eventually gain ground over other solutions. It will also be important to pay attention to whether there will be just one dominant or several energy sources coexisting as part of a larger eco-efficient logistics infrastructure.

Kalmar believes the future is “all electric,” said Mr Kaunonen.

“At Kalmar, we have a huge opportunity to help our industry improve the operational efficiency of cargo handling and we are building our eco-efficiency offering around three themes – systems efficiency, energy efficiency and resource efficiency.”