By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTUpgrading yard equipment is in the best interest for seaports to make their operations as efficient as possible in moving containers to and from and around their container yards. Idle containers cost shippers and carriers money. Not efficiently organized or stacked empty containers take up valuable real estate. More so, a seaport that can quickly off load and on load containers to a sea-going vessel is attractive to steamship lines desiring to turn their vessels quickly. Adding particular pressure for more optimal dockside operations is the Panama Canal widening project due to be completed in 2014. The huge post Panamax vessels are being built to carry almost three times as many containers as the ships currently passing through the Canal. In fact, containers unloaded from just one giant ocean vessel fill up the equivalent of more than 20 trains or 3,000 semi-trailer trucks. With seaports in the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern seaport anticipating more cargo as a result of the Panama Canal widening, and many vying to attract post Panamax strings to their terminals, ports need to be positioned to handle increased loads. The recession withstanding, almost every seaport from New York to Miami to Houston has projects under way or in the planning stage to prepare for expected growth in international trade. Even some smaller ports have gotten into the act, such as Wilmington, North Carolina, and Mobile, Alabama. Improvements run the gamut from dredging deeper channels to building new container terminals. But key to any operation are cranes to handle larger ships, and yard equipment that stacks and moves containers to and from rail and truck modes. To better understand how ports are making their yard operations more efficient and preparing for additional business resulting from the widened Panama Canal, here is a roundup of what some ports are doing: East Coast Port Investments The Port of Baltimore is gearing up for changes that will come when post Panamax ships begin traversing the Panama Canal. The port currently has seven post Panamax cranes at its Seagirt Marine Terminal. “We have just done an analysis on those and are increasing capacity on those machines for weight and additional outreach to have the ability to reach 18 containers across ,” reports Mark Montgomery, president and CEO of Ports America Chesapeake in a telephone interview with AJOT. “Those modifications are being done now.” The cranes currently have the ability to reach 17 containers across. Already larger vessels are starting to come to the U.S. East Coast via the Suez Canal. On July 17th the 9,178 TEU container vessel, the Bruxelles, operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company, called the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal. Until the new 50-foot container berth is finished, ships the size of the Bruxelles cannot arrive at the Port fully-loaded. The Bruxelles came to Baltimore carrying 6,312 TEU containers, about 2/3 of its maximum capacity. Ports America Chesapeake is building Berth 4 at Seagirt, to be completed in August 2012, which will provide 55 feet water capable of accommodating those larger ships. When finished, it will accommodate ships carrying up to 14,000 TEU containers. Montgomery reports that four super post Panamx cranes have been ordered for the new berth. They encompass a $40 million investment for the terminal. Ports America is building the berth two years before the Panama Canal widening project is completed because officials are taking a “build it and they will come” approach. “That way we can be a position check in the steamship rotations for where they are going to call,” Montgomery says. The berth is already in a good position with ground equipment to handle the extra loads. It currently has a fleet of 125 yard trucks, 25 fork lift handlers that can move containers from stack to stack, and 12 rubber tire gantry cranes. “We just purchased two additional forklifts in June, which costs about $550,