Grangemouth's three-crane Port can handle '˜Christmas rush'

The Port of Grangemouth's new landmark multi-million pound crane has now become operational in nice time for a festive surge in exports of quality Scottish food and drink.

The 45ft high, 524-tonne container crane is the third to join the Forth Ports’ fleet, as part of a £10million investment at the post.

Forth Ports says it has changed the local skyline - while bringing with it the promise of a faster turnaround time for cargo.

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More than £6 billion worth of goods passes through Grangemouth each year including food and drink, chemicals, timber, paper and equipment for the oil and gas industry.

Derek Knox, Grangemouth’s Port Manager, said: “We are Scotland’s largest container port and we handle some of the country’s most valuable exports including food and drink.

“It is vital that we deliver fast turnaround times for our export and import customers, and we can now unload and load a ship with a trio of cranes.

This is a huge benefit for our customers who need a reliable and efficient service at ports and the addition of the new crane increases our capability and flexibility to adapt to changing shipping demands”,

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As part of an ongoing major investment programme at Grangemouth, the port introduced three new ESC340 straddle carriers in 2017, increasing the fleet at the container terminal to 16.

The port also added a new Hyster empty container handler to the fleet.

The new straddles, empty container handler and the new Liebherr crane will increase the handling capacity for both

conventional containers and reefers (refrigerated containers).

A new terminal operating system and additional storage capacity have also been introduced in 2018.