SBMA acquires 2 gantry cranes

TWO gantry cranes will be delivered to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority(SBMA) by the third quarter of the year, in an effort to boost the handling capacity of the port.

SBMA chairman Feliciano Salonga recently returned from Japan where he finalized the acquisition of the two goose-neck type quay gantry cranes, each with a capacity of 40.6-tons rated load.

The cranes will be installed in container terminals 1 and 2. Two more will arrive by mid-2007, in time for the completion of the Subic- Clark- Tarlac Toll Road.

‘’With the installation of the four new quay gantry cranes, the annual port capacity of the of the container terminals will leap to 600,000 TEUs from the present 100,000 TEUs,”Salonga said.

SBMA obtained the cranes through a joint-venture arrangement with Penta-Ocean Construction Co., a consortium of TOA Corp and Shimitzu Corp of Japan, under a loan package funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

The cranes are part of the $215-million Subic Bay Port Development Project that includes sub-projects such as the construction of modern container terminals, and two berths measuring 280 meters long and 13 meters deep.

In addition to container ports, the port modernization project includes construction of a grains terminal. Subic strategically located for this purpose as it near the agricultural base of the Philippines..

Malaya.com