Philipsburg upgrades with state-of-the-art gantry

The port at St. Maarten should have its brand-new mobile harbour crane (MHC) up and running before the end of July (2023).

Word from Andreas Moeller, Konecranes Senior Sales Manager (Business Unit Mobile Harbor Cranes) is that the state-of-the-art ESP.7 (from the new crane generation launched in mid-2022) will leave Antwerp by May 23. It is expected to be in St. Maarten by June 23 at which time the process of commissioning will begin.

With maximum lifting capacity of 125 tons and maximum outreach of 51 metres, this MHC will improve capabilities at Philipsburg significantly.

ST MAARTEN PORT EXECUTIVES IN ANTWERP (r – l) Roger Lawrence and Alexander Gumbs meet with Konecranes executive Andreas Moeller prior to shipment of Philipsburg’s newly acquired mobile harbour crane.

Senior Executives at the port of Philipsburg, Alexander Gumbs and Roger Lawrence visited Antwerp during the last week in April to ‘eyeball’ the new equipment and to complete details for its transport to the Caribbean and commissioning in its new home.

Commenting on the attributes of this recent generation of MHCs, the Konecranes executive said these cranes can service 13-wide vessels in twin-twenty operation and 15-wide vessel in single lift operation.

“Important also is the fact that she is so-called eco-friendly, meaning she has a much smaller engine on board versus its predecessor and is equipped with electric ultra-capacitors that automatically supply additional energy, recuperated, whenever higher a power demand is needed,” Moeller stated. []

  • First published: April 25, 2023