APM Terminals has hosted a celebration attended by The Netherlands’ Monarch King Willem-Alexander and 500 senior representatives from the[ds_preview] global shipping industry and world governments in honour of the official opening of the new APM Terminal’s Maasvlakte 2 Rotterdam facility. The terminal is considered the most technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable container terminal in the world.
According to the operator the facility launches the world’s first container terminal to utilize remotely-controlled STS gantry cranes. The cranes move containers between vessels and the landside fleet of 62 battery-powered Lift-Automated Guided Vehicles (Lift-AGV) which transport containers between the quay and the container yard, including barge and on-dock rail facilities. The Lift-AGVs also represent the world’s first series of AGVs that can actually lift and stack a container. A fleet of 54 Automated Rail-Mounted Gantry Cranes (ARMG) then positions containers in the yard in a high-density stacking system. The terminal’s power requirements are provided by wind-generated electricity, enabling terminal operations, which produce no CO2, emissions or pollutants, and which are also considerably quieter than conventional diesel-powered facilities. The terminal has been designed as a multi-modal hub to reduce truck traffic in favor of barge and rail connections to inland locations. Construction began in May 2012, with the first commercial vessel call in December 2014. Successful systems testing and ramp-up have been completed to bring the first phase of APM Terminals Maasvlakte 2 into full operational status.
The 86 hectare (212 acre) deep-water terminal features 1,000m of quay, on-dock rail, and eight fully-automated electric-powered Ship-to-Shore (STS) cranes, with an annual throughput capacity of 2.7mill. TEU, representing an APM Terminals investment of 500mill. €. At planned full build-out, the terminal will cover 180 hectares (445 acres) and offer 2,800m of deep-sea quay (19.65m depth), with an annual throughput capacity of 4.5mill. TEU.
