MSC Sixin, a 23,656-TEU container ship, the second biggest vessel of its kind, has berthed in Barcelona’s Hutchison Ports’ BEST terminal
Hutchison Port chief executive Guillermo Belcastro said “The arrival of MSC Sixin at Barcelona is the start of a new era in our container sea trade” adding “MSC Sixin operating at BEST is symbolic of the effort of both shipping lines and port operators who continue to work together, in spite of the current social and economic world situation, pushing efficiency levels to even higher standards to enable goods to arrive at their destination.”
Mr Belcastro said the terminal’s location and state-of-the-art equipment enables it to handle vessels of this size in the swiftest time possible. The terminal is now the first in Barcelona to welcome a 23,000+ TEU vessel.
The terminal said the operational differentiating factor is the physical dimensions of the terminal – Hutchison Ports BEST is the only container terminal in Barcelona with a depth of at least 16 m, the whole length of its 1,500-m berth. The semi-automated terminal is also equipped with cranes capable of serving multiple mega-vessels.
Operations of almost 10,000 moves require a high number of mega cranes working at the same time with a very high operational performance rate per crane, controlled by a highly efficient operational system.
Hutchison Ports BEST said it is used to operating with up to 8 cranes simultaneously under the control of nGen, the port’s terminal control system, and can achieve productivities per crane of over 40 moves per hour. This enables operations of 10,000 moves to be completed in a couple of days compared to more than 4 to 5 days in other ports.
The higher operational efficiency enables operators to achieve significant reductions in terms of transit time, port costs and CO2 emissions due to fuel consumption.
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