Port d’Owendo boosts productivity

Libreville, Gabon  – Gabon Port Management (“GPM”) have, through the quick deployment of 2 Gottwald MHC, increased berth productivity significantly at Port d’Owendo, Gabon’s main gateway port. This has occurred a mere few months after the arrival of the 2 MHCs at Port d”Owendo in April 2012.

The 2 brand new Gottwald G HMK 6407s were purchased for around 7 million and were delivered in April 2012, as part of the on going effort to modernise the port and maximise its productivity. The MHCs, with a maximum out-reach of 51m are capable of serving Post-Panamax vessels and Capesize bulk carriers.
Prior to the delivery, Port d’Owendo relied on standard vessel cranes, each capable of only executing 8 container moves/hour. Now, each MHC is capable of executing up to 25 container moves/hour.

Philippe Gery, Director General at GPM, “We are very encouraged by the results so far. Even though we have not completely phased in the MHCs with our crane operators still in the training phase, we have already almost doubled the handling rate of containers and reduced the waiting time of ships by more than 50% and ships’ time alongside by more than 30%.”

Gabon Port Management SA is a subsidiary of Portek International, a global medium sized terminal operator and port equipment solutions provider headquartered in Singapore.

10 August 2012