The Port of Virginia Makes USD 217 Million Crane Order Official

The Port of Virginia has finalized the USD 217 million contract with Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes, which will build and deliver 86 automated stacking cranes (ASCs) intended for the port’s two container terminals. 

Under the contract, 60 automated stacking cranes will be delivered to Norfolk International Terminals (NIT), while the remaining 26 cranes will be provided to Virginia International Gateway (VIG). The value of the contract exceeds EUR 200 million (USD 217.6 million).

The delivery of the cranes is scheduled to begin in 2018 and will continue in phases until 2020, according to the port.

“We secured the financing for these projects this summer, the planning and preliminary site-work has started and now we have an agreement in place with one of the world’s leading manufacturers of specialized cranes to supply the hardware to move containers safely and efficiently across our two primary container terminals,” Terry R. McAuliffe, Governor of Virginia, said, adding that the port will have the capacity to process an additional 1 million containers annually as well as the channel depth to handle the biggest ships in the Atlantic trade.

The engineering and manufacturing of key components for the cranes will be done in Finland and the steel structures will be fabricated elsewhere in Europe. The components and structures will then be loaded onto vessels bound for The Port of Virginia.

By 2020, the port will have expanded the container handling capacity at VIG by 600,000 units and the capacity at NIT by 400,000 units.

In addition, the combined cost of the projects is USD 670 million, The Port of Virginia said.