APM Terminals' Maasvlakte II container terminal has set a loading record in Rotterdam on the Madison Maersk with 17,152 TEU loaded, including a 10th tier above deck stowage, the company said in its press release.
Hans Van Kerkhof, Managing Director of APM Terminals Maasvlakte II said “This is an important milestone in our journey to help our clients achieve the vessel utilizations needed to optimize their networks and compete in the market. Our operations team worked hard to handle just under 1,000 containers during the 15 hour port call”. The Madison Maersk sailed with a high utilization to its next destination, Tangiers, Morocco on 30 September 2015. The vessel sails in the Asia - Europe trade lane.
The APM Terminals Maasvlakte II Rotterdam facility ushers in a new era in port innovation. The facility launched 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-AGVs) which transport containers between the quay and the container yard, including barge and on-dock rail facilities. The Lift-AGV’s also represent the world’s first series of AGV’s that can lift and stack a container. A fleet of 54 Automated Rail-Mounted Gantry Cranes (ARMGs) 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 facility, constructed on land entirely reclaimed from the North Sea, 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 February 2015. 2015 and 2016 are the years of ramping up operations and refining the terminal operating system.