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Sunderland makes £500,000 crane investment

A £500,000 Liebherr crane has started work at the Port of Sunderland.

Sunderland City Council made the investment to help boost cargo handling capacities and business opportunities at the port, which is the second largest municipally owned port in the UK.

Commenting on the news, Councillor Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council and Chairman of the Port Board, said: “This crane can go, quite literally, along any of the quaysides and working areas in the Port of Sunderland. It’s going to bring some significant benefits.

The £500,000 Liebherr A944C HD wheeled excavator can access all quay surface types, driving on wheels and operating off pads, and is capable of loading and discharging cargoes into ships up to 5,000 dwt.

It has load capacities of up to four tonnes at a working radius of 18 metres and a maximum lift height of 20 metres. One of its first jobs was loading scrap metal bound for Europe.

Matthew Hunt, Director of the Port of Sunderland, said: “The Port Board considered the business case, approved the purchase and now we’ve taken delivery of a very precise and efficient piece of very mobile plant machinery.

“It’s going to provide important new additional capacity to more efficiently meet our trading obligations over the ten year period.”

The port already has rail mounted cranes at Corporation Quay and other mobile crane capacity includes a Liebherr Harbour Mobile 150.

Keith Middleton, the port’s Cargo Operations Manager, added: “It’s a very fast and agile piece of machinery, and it is offering us more flexibility.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .