The Port of Felixstowe has ordered two new gantry cranes for its Number 8 and 9 berths, which handle some of the world’s largest container ships.

It will bring the number of gantry cranes at the port’s newest facility to 12, with work also in progress on raising 10 existing cranes at the Trinity Terminal.

The new cranes, ordered from ZPMC in Shanghai, China, will have a 59.5 metre outreach from the quay, enough to allow them to handle future generations of even larger container vessels with containers stowed up to 24-wide across the deck.

The maximum operating height of 10 of the other cranes on Trinity Terminal, which were also built by ZPMC, will be increased to 46.5 metres, allowing them to work vessels with containers stowed up to 11 high on deck under all tidal conditions.

Clemence Cheng, executive director at Hutchison Ports, which includes the Port of Felixstowe, said: “The Port of Felixstowe has facilities to handle vessels of all sizes. It is the clear port-of-choice for the largest mega ships and we had 137 calls by vessels of over 18,000 TEU (20-foot equivalent units) last year.

“Increasing the total number of cranes on the port and increasing the height of 10 cranes on Trinity Terminal will give us greater flexibility to accommodate the largest categories of ship size. In total, we will have 22 cranes capable of handling the largest container vessels in service.”

Delivery of the new cranes is scheduled for February 2018 while the contract to raise the height of the other cranes – which has been let to ZPMC’s Dutch subsidiary – is due to be completed in December 2018. The value of the two investments has not been disclosed.