Medcenter explains strad preference

Despite having commenced operations just 10 years ago, MCT recorded a container throughput of almost 3.2m TEU in 2004 and is looking at a further significant volume increase for 2005. The terminal’s entire yard operation is dependent on a fleet of straddle carriers – an interesting phenomenon in a transhipment operation of such scale. Asked why MCT is ‘bucking the trend’ by operating straddle carriers rather than RTGs or RMGs, Tim Halhead, Medcenter’s COO, explains that it is all down to terminal specifics.

“In our terminal, the majority of container throughput is transhipment traffic, particularly for the central Mediterranean area. In fact, 95% of the volumes we handle are ship-to-ship and in this situation only straddle carriers can give us the flexibility we need.”

In addition to short runs, the operation also requires a lot of sorting and shuffling within the yard. For example, it is highly probable that containers discharged from one vessel will be intended for transhipment onto several other vessels. Inevitably, the containers destined for transhipment on a particular vessel will also be situated at various points along the quay.

Time constraints coupled with high berth occupation means that absolute precision in container ‘housekeeping’ is not always possible – particularly when the working area is almost always restricted. Therefore, the flexibility of a straddle carrier to operate within a randomly distributed box environment is ideal.

“Our clients continually demand ‘economies of scale’ and high levels of operational velocity and productivity, ” explains Halhead. “We believe straddle carriers are the key to supplying a dynamic operation because they improve the performance of the ship-toshore cranes, which are able to discharge and pick up containers directly onto and from the quay. This is much more time effective than placing containers on a chassis.”