Governor Terry R. McAuliffe announced November 15th that The Port of Virginia® will finalize the $217 million contract with Konecranes for that company to build and deliver 86 specialized cranes that will be at the center of the port’s expansion projects at Virginia International Gateway (VIG) and Norfolk International Terminals (NIT). The contract is the largest one-time order for automated stacking cranes (ASCs) in industry history.
At the November 15th regularly-scheduled meeting, the Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners ratified the deal with Konecranes. The contract award covers the purchase of 86 rail-mounted Automated Stacking Cranes: 60 of the cranes will go to NIT and 26 will be headed to VIG. Delivery begins in 2018 and will continue in phases until 2020.
While Konecranes will be providing the cranes, it will be partnering with Roanoke, Virginia-based TMEIC, which will provide the automation technology that drives the unit. Konecranes and TMEIC have had a long partnership that dates back to the construction of VIG and implementation of Automated Stacking Cranes there.
Konecranes is a Finnish company and the engineering and manufacturing of key components for the cranes will be done in Finland, the steel structures will be fabricated elsewhere in Europe. The components and structures will then be loaded onto vessels bound The Port of Virginia. The size and scope of the construction process will dictate that some assembly and parts storage take place off-terminal. Konecranes is currently scouting for a regional staging site, where components will be put together and then moved to the terminals for final assembly.
By 2020, the port will have expanded the container handling capacity at VIG by 600,000 units and the capacity at NIT by 400,000 units; the combined cost of the projects is $670 million.
The Virginia Port Authority (VPA) is a political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The VPA owns and through its private operating subsidiary, Virginia International Terminals, LLC (VIT), operates four general cargo facilities Norfolk International Terminals, Portsmouth Marine Terminal, Newport News Marine Terminal and the Virginia Inland Port in Warren County. The VPA leases Virginia International Gateway and the Port of Richmond. In fiscal 2013, The Port of Virginia provided more than 374,000 jobs and generated $60.3 billion in total economic impact throughout the Commonwealth.