Konecranes has in May 2008 received a major order for 19 rubber tired gantry (RTG) cranes for three terminals operated by National Container Company (NCC) in Russia. Fifteen of the cranes ordered are cable reel RTGs, the rest are regular RTGs. The cranes will be delivered to two terminals in Russia and one in Ukraine. The first cranes will be delivered in the spring 2009. The value of the order is not disclosed.

The ordered equipment will increase throughput capacity at NCC's terminals and improve productivity. Eleven cable reel RTGs will be supplied to the terminal in Ust-Luga, 150 km west of St.Petersburg, on the Baltic Sea. Four cable reel RTGs will be delivered to the NUTEP terminal in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. The last four RTGs will be delivered to Ukrtranscontainer in Illichivsk in Ukraine.

"This is an important breakthrough for the environmental-friendly cable reel technology in the Baltic area," says Aku Lehtinen, Director, RTG cranes as Konecranes. "The market is showing increasing interest in environmental friendly solutions."

"NCC plans to purchase altogether 50 cranes of this standard. At our terminals we arrange operations by means of RTG cranes, most of which produced by Konecranes. Six cranes have already been working at UTC, fourteen more were ordered in September 2008 for FCT and Shushary terminal," says Evgeny Yuzhilin, NCC Vice-President on technology and terminal construction.

The new cable reel RTG cranes reduce local emissions by 95 percent as the cranes run on electricity from the grid. They are also equipped with regenerative units, which means that excess energy is fed back to the grid. The cable reel technology is modular and can be retrofitted on a crane.

In addition, all the cranes ordered are equipped with Konecranes YardIT GPS-based autosteering and container positioning equipment, which increases safety and maximizes equipment performance in harbors. The container positioning system tells where to locate and pick up a container. The system eliminates lost containers and the high related costs. Another important feature of all RTGs is the advanced load positioning feature, which includes sway prevention and horizontal fine-positioning of containers.

Cooperation with NCC started back in the 1980s. The previous order from NCC was received in October 2007, and the cranes, seven STS cranes and fourteen RTGs are at present under production.

About Konecranes

Konecranes is a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses, serving a broad range of customers, including manufacturing and process industries, shipyards, ports and terminals. Konecranes provides productivity-enhancing lifting solutions as well as services for lifting equipment and machine tools of all makes. In 2007, Group sales totaled EUR 1,750 million. The Group has 8,800 employees, in more than 470 locations in 43 countries. Konecranes is listed on the OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange (symbol: KCR1V).

About NCC

National Container Company (NCC) is the leading container terminal operator in Russia and CIS. The company was founded in 2002. The Group of companies First Quantum and the Transport Group FESCO own NCC on parity basis.

NCC operates First Container Terminal (FCT, St. Petersburg), Container Terminal NUTEP (Novorossiysk) and Container Terminal Ukrtranscontainer (UTC, Illichivsk, Ukraine) providing customers with container handling services that combine world-class standard terminal operations with state-of-the-art technology.

In April, 2007, National Container Company (NCC) started the construction of Ust-Luga Container Terminal (ULCT, Leningrad region) which is due to become the largest one in Russia and the Baltic region with the annual throughput capacity of 3 million TEU. NCC also develops off-dock Logistics Terminal in Shushary (St. Petersburg) with total capacity of 200,000 TEU per year.

The aggregated throughput of NCC's terminals in 2007 amounted to 1,556,444 TEU.