Malta Freeport invests €24.5 million in huge cranes

Malta Freeport Terminals has invested €24.5 million in four huge tandem cranes which can handle the largest existing or planned container ships.

The cranes, each weighing 1,750 tons, will all be commissioned by next month and can candle up to four containers at one go, thus greatly improving efficiency.

Company managing director Uwe Malezki told Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt during a tour of the freeport this morning that while competing freeports had seen their throughput decline by a fifth this year because of the recession, Malta Freeport had kept up last year's levels and plans to handle three million containers per year from 2011.

Dr Gatt said this investment justified the privatisation of Malta Freeport five years ago. He said the facility now employed 1,200 workers, of whom 254 were employed since the privatisation.

The new cranes have an outreach of 65.5 metres.Training on their operation is currently in hand.