Major Mediterranean transhipment hub Medcenter Container Terminal SpA (MCT) is catering to future cargo growth with the help of a further 30 Kalmar 7th generation CSC straddle carriers to supplement the sizeable fleet already in operation at its Gioia Tauro facility in Italy. Due for delivery between late 2007 and early 2008, the order includes 20 four-high CSC440 units and ten three-high CSC340 units. The new CSC440 unit will provide a 50% stacking capacity increase over MCT’s existing three-high straddle carriers. The order reflects MCT’s trust in Kalmar’s CSC model, which has proven its worth as the most reliable workhorse in terminals around the globe, and also illustrates the straddle carrier system’s ability to efficiently handle multi-million TEU annual container throughput volumes.

MCT, part of the Contship Italia Group, is a veritable giant in the container transhipment league, presently handling around three million TEU a year along its 3,300 metre-long quay. Some 95% of this is transhipment cargo for the central Mediterranean region, meaning that most of its box movements tend to be between the feeder and mothership berths. With boxes from one vessel likely to be transhipped onto several smaller vessels and vice versa, the flexibility of a straddle carrier to operate within a randomly distributed box environment is ideal.

Moreover, high berth occupation and busy quayside activity means that MCT needs peak performance from its ship-to-shore (STS) cranes. Straddle carriers are the key to supplying this by allowing the STS cranes to discharge and pick up containers directly onto and from the quay, which is more time effective than placing them on a chassis.

According to Vice President Kalmar Straddle Carriers, Ilkka Annala, the reliability, independence and productivity of the straddle carrier system is ideally suited to transhipment hubs.

“MCT is a high-performance straddle carrier terminal, recording approximately 30,000 TEU per straddle carrier per year – a 50% increase over the 20,000 global average. This demonstrates the high productivity and performance levels offered by Kalmar straddle carriers, as well as the system’s suitability for large, modern transhipment hubs,” he explains.

“Being one of the biggest straddle carrier terminals in the world, MCT already handles over three million TEU a year with its straddle carrier system and is aiming to do much more. As volumes grow, MCT is now acquiring more four-high units, which will give it a significant increase in capacity through higher stacking capabilities, while allowing it to retain the element of flexibility and high STS productivity that characterises straddle carrier operations.”